Hi all! I hope this last week was great for you. I had a great week, there are tons of things I could share but I think I will just pick the things that had the biggest impact on me! So basically this week God really just pounded on my spirit how valuable my thought life is. There is so much that I learned but I will start with last monday. I went to my briefing (a meeting before a prayer set) and our leader was talking about the quality of our hearts. She read a quote from a book which basically said that what is in our hearts right now about God is the most important thing about us. It really challenged me to separate the things I know about God from what is truly in my heart because in the end that is what he is going to be examining, not the things I can rattle off and tell you about God. I can't just listen or read things and just agree and then say I know God, it's has to be a heart experience. I know this truth but to say that what's in my heart is the most important thing about me, it really set me into a new perspective. Later on in the week, David Sliker, my Eschatology teacher talked about our thoughts and giving into thoughts that aren't good and how that immediately leads to sin. When we feed into certain thoughts we start a fire that can keep on burning for a lifetime if we don't choose to put it out. The best thing to do is not give into those thoughts at all, God gave us the ability to control what we think and when we do and choose not to give into fleshly thoughts we begin to step into righteousness. Later on in the week FMA had something called Fall Frenzy, where we just had a retreat/conference thing. Our speaker was Dr. Carol Thompson and really challenged me on my thought life all over again. God is calling us into righteousness and holiness but it's not just in outward actions, it's in our thoughts and our hearts. The best part of our Fall Frenzy was yesterday when a girl got up and spoke about how she felt the need to address this "perfect woman" that us girls have in our heads because of our culture. She called into light the way girls dress in vain, compare, judge, and think about themselves and one another all in the context of what the world says about us. She prayed over us and repented of all of those things and prayed that the heart of God would tell us who we are and put the right "perfect woman" in our hearts so that we could strive to be that woman. This was also another big challenging thing along with my thought life, because this is something all girls deal with, but I walked away knowing I have the power by the Holy Spirit to put to death thoughts that give into my flesh. Again God is driving me into holiness and this week he showed me the root of it all was my thoughts and keeping my thoughts holy and blameless before him. One of the things that Dr. Thompson said was that the mind releases the spirit and the spirit releases the mind, to be free in the spirit is to be free in the mind, a blockage in the mind is a blockage in the spirit and so ultimately you mind will control your spiritual level. That truth right there is causing me to examine my thoughts so much more than I have before, because what controls my thoughts controls me. I want my thoughts to be harnessed by the Holy Spirit and therefore I want to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. I love how God took a whole week to really get this in me and I am sure he will have to spend some more time getting this in me but I always get so overwhelmed how he does everything he can to make us holy as he is holy.
Alright, sorry if this was all over the place but there was so much to say and my computer is about to die and so I had little time to do this!! Please if there is anything I can pray for let me know. I hope you all have a great week, and keep seeking him with everything!