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250. Stay North Ash

 

Testimony time! Change is hard for some people, especially during the holidays. While many others handle change with ease, I tend to handle it like a cat thrown in a bathtub. Settling in here hasn’t been much different. So much change. 

In many areas it’s been a blessing and the perfect fit, but I’d be lying if I said being this far away from Leah wasn’t the hardest thing I’ve ever done. While she’s amazingly independent, I always thought she’d be away at college before I couldn’t just stop by if she ever needed me for anything.  

This has led to me questioning the Lord on a lot of things, and led to me wondering if us moving to Morgantown would be a good fit for the next season the Lord has coming up over the horizon.  

How many of you have experienced something similar? You pray, the Lord answers, you obey, then you’re in it. You’re smack dab in the middle of what you prayed for and it ends up challenging you to grow in ways you never thought possible. 

You have to surrender more. You have to die to yourself more. You have to love more. You have to trust more. You have to let go of more. You have to forgive more. You have to pray more. You have to obey more, and you have to throw out your expectations. This is where the enemy loves to sow seeds of doubt and confusion. This is where a lot of people stall out, or give up and this is where I’ve made mistakes in my past on this walk with the Lord. Don’t believe the seeds of doubt. Believe the word of the Lord. Seek the face of Jesus.

My late night prayers have consisted of a mixture of thanksgiving, petitioning, praising, interceding and questioning. Followed by doing my best to be patient and to wait on His answers. He sends us where He sends us, when He sends us. He answers in His timing and in His ways.  The other day a few weeks ago, I heard one word. “Birds”.  

Birds Lord? What does that even mean? Then the Lord put on my heart one of my favorite parts of this time of the year. Seeing birds nests in the bare tree branches against the sky.  “You’ll see birds nests and you’ll stay”.  With those words I saw a vision of a very large nest in a specific tree. 

Now the Lord had known it was on my heart for about a week and a half before this word and vision, and for the past two weeks I’ve been looking through the trees every where we go. I’d see small nests but what I had visioned was never there. Until one day. 

One random day, a few weeks after He gave me a word and a vision, I saw the very same picture in real life, in real time. 

As we were driving one morning, Daniel (who I never told about any of this) pulled over, parked the car and said look. 

There it was. The vision I saw during prayer weeks ago. Right in front of my eyes.  It was settled. “Go North Ash” still stands. Our assignment isn’t done here yet. 

Don’t quit on where you are today in your walk with Jesus just because every detail is not how you  envisioned it to be. You have no idea the impact you are making where you are. 

Don’t feel abnormal for seeking the Lord for that extra bit of confirmation. It’s better to move an inch with the Lord at His lead, than to run a marathon out of His will. 

So many of us want our own answers in our own timing. So many of us give up right before the breakthrough comes because growth is hard. Transformation takes time and healing, well, healing comes from the Lord, in the right time and the right way, requiring a renewal of our minds, a repentance of our sins, a dying to self, and lot of good hugs from Jesus and those who love you. 

In this season of healing, Jesus has held me close, bandaged my wounds, reignited my fire and positioned me to serve as an evangelist, hidden in Christ. Every day is different and I never know why we are sent where we are sent until after we get there.  Don’t be afraid to step out in obedience in the direction the Lord is leading you. You have no idea what He may have planned! 

About a month ago the Lord led us to this occult art store in a large city. We had no idea why we were there. As we walked around we could feel the darkness and corruption in the atmosphere. We were both led to pray in tongues and in English independently on different sides of the store and then walked through the rest together. We thought we may be led to talk to the employee but he was completely shut down. So we left.  A couple days ago the Lord led us back to that same store front. Which was now unoccupied and empty. Just in time for the holiday rush in that area. From the outside, we had no idea why we were there, until we were sent back to see what the Lord had done through the power of prayer and through His presence. 

Never underestimate the power of the Lord. Your prayers hold weight. Your intercession is invaluable. Prayers carry power to accomplish the will of the Father on earth as it is in Heaven. 

These last few months of the year are either a blessing or a curse for many people. You never know who’s sitting at a table where empty seats cause broken hearts.  Now is the time to pray and intercede. Now is the time to seek the Lord for His will for 2025. To pray like never before and to follow the lead of the Father who truly knows what He’s doing, better than we ever could. He has so much more prepared for us and for the body of Christ than we could ever cultivate or fabricate for ourselves.  Keep seeking Jesus! Even if that means you wait a little longer to hear His voice, or if it means your legs are shaking as you step out in obedience to follow His lead. 

Jesus 2025.  

Stay North Ash, the best it yet to come! 

Matthew 16:24-28 TPT

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If you truly want to follow me, you should at once completely reject and disown your own life. And you must be willing to share my cross and experience it as your own, as you continually surrender to my ways. [25] For if you choose self-sacrifice and lose your lives for my glory, you will continually discover true life. But if you choose to keep your lives for yourselves, you will forfeit what you try to keep. [26] For even if you were to gain all the wealth and power of this world—at the cost of your own life—what good would that be? And what could be more valuable to you than your own soul? [27] I, the Son of Man, will one day return with my messengers and in the splendor and majesty of my Father. And then I will reward each person according to what they have done. [28] But I promise you, there are some standing here now who won’t experience death until they have witnessed the coming of the Son of Man in the presence and the power of the kingdom realm of God!”

Romans 8:26 KJV

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Jude 20-23

20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 22 And have mercy on those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

Romans 10:10-17

10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?

17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.


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