Hey everyone! I hope y'all are doing good and getting ready for the official
start tomorrow. Everyone is more than welcome to, you know, obviously go ahead
and start posting, which I appreciate. Amy has already been on. I've enjoyed getting
to hear her journey and how the Lord started preparing her, but in fact it was
it was Amy's post, I believe it was this morning, that prompted me to realize that
this would probably be a good subject to cover really quick. And that is how to
make decisions from a place of rest. So we're gonna be talking about this
in greater depth as we go, but I figured that now would be a good time because
people are trying to think, okay, well at the beginning of this, what is a way that
I want to... what is a gesture that I want to make in my relationship with the Lord
and talking to Him and saying, Lord, I really am very serious about this. I want
to shift into something new. I don't fully understand what it is you have for
me yet, Lord. I don't know really where it is that we're going. I don't know what
the journey looks like. I don't know what it is that, you know, we can feel in
this moment like, oh well, God is going to be requiring. Hey Carrie! And so we're
trying to figure out, okay, what is it that the Father heart wants and how
should I step into that? I know, Carrie, it's probably the first time most people have
caught me live. I have not been on live in a long time. But anyway, so there's a
couple of things to be looking for when you're operating from a place of rest.
And that is you're looking in your spirit for something that feels like
life and you're also looking for peace. So those are the two things. Now, so for
life, when you're either listening to someone talk or you are reading the
Bible or you are, I don't know, you're just praying with the Lord or whatever
and or maybe you're at the grocery store and you're you're receiving information
and you're looking for something in which where you're trying to... where you've
got a dichotomy. Should I do this or should I do this? Should I make this
decision or should I make this one? You know, is this one the responsible
decision or is this one the responsible decision? Lord, what is it should I do?
Should I be stepping out in faith here but I'm afraid over here? You know, Lord,
what's going on? Well, one of the things that we need to be listening for is to
make sure to take ourselves out of our head. We're just trying to reason and
trying to work through logically how something should or shouldn't be and we
need to start looking for life within us. We need to be sensitive to, okay, what
am I hearing that is prompting something within me, whether it's small or large,
where it feels like something within me is coming to life. Think of when you see
a seedling coming up out of the ground or I wish I could think of some
examples for you just really quick but maybe you maybe you weren't expecting it
to be shine with the Sun to be shining outside or you know maybe maybe you've
been walking and it's cloudy and then all of a sudden the Sun comes out from
behind a cloud and it shines really bright brightly while you're walking and
all of a sudden there's something within you that kind of feels like it's coming
to life. I'm talking about that where there's it's like there's an opening
where something inside you feels like there's light coming in where you didn't
know it felt dark before. So that's light that's something inside you that starts
to kind of open up a bit. It depends on what it is. It depends on how
spiritually sensitive that you are at the moment as to how small or big that
life bud will feel like. Sometimes it just kind of overwhelms us where we
know immediately what it is that we should do. We're overwhelmed by by I
don't know just this flood that we can feel of light which really is another
way in which we often express the feeling of life within us or it could
just like I said it can feel very small but anyway that is one thing to be
looking for and then the other thing peace. So to describe this I wanted to
first give you an example from my own life. I was at the store the other day
trying to make a decision a big monetary decision actually between two
different things. So it wasn't a small deal it was in my world. In my world it
was a big deal and I was trying to make a decision between these two things and
I thought okay I want to practice making decisions in this spirit as opposed to
to logically from my own head because again logically from my own head is not
not.
from a place of rest, that's not from a place of the Spirit, that's not from a
place of faith, that's eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
which some of you understand what I'm talking about when I'm referring to that
and for those of you who don't I'm going to be talking about it later but in
other words where I am trying to gain control of the situation and I'm trying
to understand for myself with my own logical reasoning what what decision
that I believe would be pleasing to the Lord and I thought you know what I've
lived like my whole life I've lived my whole life like that it has not served
me well and I now know to that there is this place that I can I can abide in and
operate from and make decisions according to and and live in and work
from and that there's it's a place God says is actually a place in the Bible is
this place called rest and I need to be making all of my decisions even stuff I
buying at the store from that place so I thought I'm gonna practice this I'm
gonna practice you know shifting things in my spirit so instead of shifting
from my soul making decisions in my soul shifting into making decisions out of my
spirit and understanding what's going on in that realm so I had these two
different things I was deciding between one was a cheaper option than another
and obviously as you can imagine the cheaper option had different features to
it than the more expensive option and I was going back and forth and long story
short I in this whole process took me 15 minutes it's standing in front of these
items in the store who knows what other people thought when they were walking
by because to me it was not the item to me I was making it I was I was
transitioning my and and I was practicing transitioning my habit of
making decisions in my soul to making decisions in my spirit so this is again
one example I've done this many areas of my life but this just happens to be an
example from when I was at the store looking at two different items so one
item I thought okay well how do I feel about each item I thought well one feel
a one I'm drawn to the cheaper option I'm drawn to and I realized it was
because I felt comfortable and it felt familiar because it was cheaper so I
thought it's safe I just I just inherently because of my background
because my experience because my logical reasoning of well that's a responsible
choice why get this one if you don't have to etc and because it because to be
quite honest I wasn't sure which one I was gonna need this one had features
that this didn't I thought well I might need those then I realized well I could
always return one or the other whichever one I got so but that was just again
something that I had I was considering so I was looking at the cheaper option
realized it was comfortable it was familiar because it felt safe it felt
like well I could save money I could do whatever but and then I realized that
when I looked at the other one and shifted to the other more expensive
option I realized that one makes me afraid I'm fearful so I I acknowledge
and this is a very important part of the process when you're trying to just
think about what decision should I make here what is it that God wants me to
surrender which you remember I'm Amy was talking about earlier which is what
prompted me to I realized that this would be a really good topic to talk
about what is it that God wants me to surrender what is in the Father's heart
which direction should I go because I'm used to making comfortable familiar
decisions based off of what I've always thought was responsible you go through
this list this checklist that we have of well things are responsible if they
meet these requirements and it's irresponsible if they make these meets
these other requirements so I'd realized well that hadn't been serving me but I
did acknowledge that that was still in my soul that was something that my soul
still responded to out of habit that that's why this one felt comfortable and
familiar and this one made me feel afraid and I thought okay now that I've
acknowledged that now that I have knowledge reality and not denied reality
very important when working with faith do not deny reality that's this thing
this pandemic that everyone's so concerned about it's important to not
deny reality even when when operating in faith operating in faith does not mean
that oh well such-and-such doesn't exist no we need to acknowledge that something
exists and it's acknowledging something that something exists and that something
is real and is reality that we then choose willfully to operate from a place
of faith it's not from a place of faith if we're denying reality that that's not
faith
So anyway, I acknowledged what my soul was feeling. I had to acknowledge the fact that I was still struggling and that there was something
that still made me afraid.
Then I thought, okay, that's what my soul is doing.
But what is my spirit doing?
And I knew that my spirit in order to be able to make a decision, it needed to sense peace.
That is what I needed to be looking for and I needed to make a decision wherever my peace
currently sat. Because my peace is
indicative, my inward peace, my inner,
my inside peace, is
an inner, that's the word I was looking for, my inner peace
is indicative of what it is that I truly believe.
It's indicative of the level and degree of faith that I currently hold at a given moment.
It's the degree of rest in which I am living.
So I thought that's what I need to look for. So I thought about what was comfortable and familiar,
you know, in this cheaper option. I thought, okay, that's how I feel there. So let's compare it to how I feel over here.
Well, yes, I was still afraid of this other one.
But when I thought about in this spirit, I thought, where is my God?
And what what is he wanting to give me? And what would he give me? And what will he give me?
Which is something I'll talk about another time, how to determine whether or not God will do something.
Versus he could do something, but what will he do? And put our faith in that.
So I thought, well, you know, what is it that God can, could, and will do?
And I realized
this was where my peace was at.
Isn't that interesting? My peace in the spirit, my level of faith, the degree to which that I was abiding in rest,
was in the very thing that my soul was afraid of.
But what it showed me is it showed me how much in my life I have shifted to operating from a place of rest.
That it was in something that my soul would naturally, out of habit, respond to out of fear.
But my spirit
knew, you know, that is where God will come through for you.
He will provide for you to be able to purchase this thing.
This is the, is the degree to which God
wants to display his goodness in my life. How much he loves me.
He, he offers things to me in my life in abundance.
And he was choosing in that moment to portray or evidence or show it and display it to me
through a, through the purchase of something that was more expensive than something else.
God doesn't always have us choose the expensive option. It really doesn't matter.
I mean, money means nothing to the Lord because, because he, he owns cattle on a thousand hills, you know.
You know, he can give us anything that he wants. I'm just saying that for me, you notice that in my soul,
that was the issue. The issue was the amount of money.
So God's like, okay, so if that's your issue in your soul, let's address that.
And acknowledge the fact that you're afraid because your soul is still trying to shift. But your soul has shifted enough, Ashley,
that it, it has opened itself up to being sensitive enough to the spirit.
That you're sensing in the spirit the truth that I will provide this for you.
And you know that because your spirit, when it, when it took this before me,
took, in other words, when I took it before the Lord,
it felt peace.
So I suggest that when you're looking at, and you're taking things before the Lord, and you're trying to determine
what is it that
he wants me to surrender to him, and you're going to be thinking of different things.
You're going to, different things are going to come to mind. Some of them are going to feel very uncomfortable.
And, and others feel, oh, that's, yeah, that's not so bad. And we'll compare and contrast them, take them through
the different things that I talked about, you know, since where life feels like, where it feels like something is coming to life within you.
And, and since, you know, where, where's your peace? First of all, before you do anything,
acknowledge to yourself how something makes you feel in your soul. I feel afraid. I feel uncomfortable.
I feel, or I feel comfortable, and I feel, and it feels,
it feels familiar.
And so we can see through all of these things that familiar and comfortable doesn't mean right.
The right
is, well, I don't want to say right, but the thing
that God desires us to start making decisions by is to making decisions from
a place of rest which can be indicative to us by when we're feeling peace within
us. Peace is very different from feeling comfortable. It's very different from
feeling familiar. And so just start testing things and taking them before
the Lord. And so that is a way that you can start understanding how...hearing
the Lord and understanding the level and the degree to which you are currently
believing Him and where your peace is at. And operate according to that
peace. If you want to stretch...if you want to stretch yourself, be like, you know
what? This feels more comfortable and I'm still trying to figure out this whole
peace thing because it's hard for me to decipher peace when...and separate
it from, you know, feeling uncomfortable. I'm really not really sure. If there's
something that you desire to stretch yourself in and you're like, oh that
really makes me feel very uncomfortable. I'm not really sure if I feel peace
to going to that level or not. I'm really not sure if I want to
get...if I want to surrender that thing. If it is something that you choose from
your own will to offer to the Lord because you're like, Lord, I choose to
believe that me giving this to you, me surrendering this and me offering this
thing. I'm still, Lord, I'm still trying to figure out that whole life peace
thing. I tried. I tried. I did the exercise. I tried to figure it out and I couldn't.
And I'm making a choice though, Lord. This one feels very uncomfortable for me to
do. But I want you to know how serious that I am and I am desiring from what it
is that I know and what it is that I understand about myself and what it is
that I believe that you may or may not...that you may want me to do. I am
choosing to offer this to you. And Lord, this is hard. You know to what degree
that this is difficult. Know that the Lord will honor that. So I just wanted to
let everyone know, operate according to the level and the degree of peace that
you have and know that whatever that is, is good. It's a delight to the Lord. It
doesn't matter how big or small it is. The important thing is that just operate
according to the level of peace that you're at. And I also mentioned, you know,
that other that stretching, if that's something that you desire to do, if you
desire to stretch yourself and you're like, I'm really not sure that I'm
feeling peace here, but it's something that I desire within me to stretch to,
God will honor that. This is a journey. You don't...you don't have to know
everything and have it all perfect and have it all figured out. God will not,
God will not abandon you in the journey. He won't abandon you like, oh well, you
know what, you stretched too far, you know. I wanted you to look for peace
and you had your peace here, but you decided to stretch here, so I was only
gonna cover you this much. I'm not gonna cover you that much. I promise you, God
will not do that. He will honor you to the degree that you are, that you are
stepping out in faith to give him something. He wants a relationship with
you. It's not a formula. It's not this this perfect thing that you have to try
to attain to. He just wants relationship and this is the way that you were trying
to relate to him. You don't have to be, you know, 60 years old in this. You
only have to be however old you are and in that particular area of life, you
might only be three years old. God doesn't expect you to act like a 60 year
old mature at 60 year old maturity level. Act at the three-year-old maturity level.
It's perfectly fine. There's nothing wrong with being three years old.
Absolutely nothing. A three-year-old is perfect for just the way he is and
nobody expects him to be five. Nobody expects him to read yet. He's only three.
Just give yourself the rest and the peace to know that
wherever it is you're at, operate according to that. God will honor it and
it's more than that. He will delight in it. So I wanted to encourage everybody in
that and also know that to what degree that you move towards
the Lord in this is the degree, in other words, the
internal shift that it's making is the degree to which you will be stepping
into freedom. So does it mean that you're
going to lack in freedom because you make a particular choice now that two
weeks from now you'd make a different choice you could you could you know put
forth a different gesture in two weeks if you want to or you can just leave it
as is and God will prove to you hey look it's not tit for tat it's not an eye for
an eye it's not a tooth for a tooth that's old covenant remember we always
quote that verse it's old covenant oh my word why on earth do we do that it's old
covenant not new covenant it's not tit-for-tat so just because you operate
here does not mean well God's only gonna give it meets you there no no you move
here and God's gonna give you an abundance so I just want everyone to
make sure that whatever decisions that you make and you between you and the
Lord no just be at peace and rest in them it's not important what decision
you make the important thing is how you make the decision that's what's important
to life very very very crucial to know in any decision that you make in life
it's not the decision the world and the church has taught us incorrectly that
it's the decision that we make it's not it's how we make our decisions when
we're when we're operating as Sons and Kings of God so anyway if anyone has any
questions always feel free to reach out to me and comment below like okay yeah
but how about this you mentioned this but I'm not so sure about this that's
what this group is for so I'm looking forward to continuing to to interact
hope y'all are doing well and looking forward to seeing y'all introduce
yourselves to each other and so because I know y'all and I think that y'all are
just really really neat I'm probably gonna be tooting y'all's horns by the
way if y'all don't I'm gonna be telling each other who how wonderful each of you
is so I'm looking forward to and so just know it's a free it's a free and
free forum just talk about whatever you want and I'm looking forward to it so
I'll talk to y'all later