This last week’s teaching was on Destiny by Design. Everyone has dreams and so many times we have forgotten what those are or we feel so discouraged that we give up on our dreams. I was reminded that the dreams that we have are so many times God-given dreams, dreams that God has put in our hearts. God has created us to know His purpose for our lives because He has created us all so unique. He has created us with a special, unique purpose…Jeremiah 1:5 says “Before you were formed I knew you.” It is as if we are a unique puzzle piece in the puzzle called LIFE and we bring a completion to the puzzle that only we can fill. If we try and become somone else or make someone else’s dreams ours, then we will not fit into the puzzle. Our dreams are clues to our God-given purpose in our lives. Many times what we enjoyed doing in our childhood (games, toys, etc.) is a clue to what we are called to do. There are so many detours to our dreams: one that really drew my attention was that we don’t recognize the dream that God has given us or we don’t think our dreams are from God so we don’t pursue them. We can’t let people or groups discourage or control those dreams.
God uses every experience we have had: both good and bad. We were asked to idenify those experiences that “gave us life”in the past. Many times these experiences help us to understand key patterns to our design. Our character is so important through this process as well, which is developed through our experiences both good and bad. We were asked to identify character issues in our lives that are hindering our dreams: pride, unbelief, laziness, unforgiveness, or fear. I realized that fear rules my life many times and it has hindered my dreams from becoming reality (this can be fear of the present which becomes anxiety and fear of the future which is worry). Fear hinders and limits faith. One lesson I have learned is that when fear grips me, I have to ask what area of God’s character do I not trust and have faith in and ask God to renew my understanding of that area of His character.
We also learned about the process of pruning and times of testing, how God uses times of testing to reveal what is in our hearts. Deuteronomy 8:2 says that God allowed the testing of the Israelites to find out if they were depending on Him or in themselves.
Everyone has a soul print, which is a tendency towards personality traits. Our personality is perfectly designed for the “calling” that God has upon our lives. We took many tests to determine some characteristics of our personality. As I am sure most of you know, I am an outward person (extrovert), big picture person (see the big picture, but not the steps to get there), make decisions with my heart (based on feelings verses facts) and spontaneous decision making (dislike deadlines, postpone decision making, like to go with the flow). This really helped me to understand things about me: such as outward people need to discuss outloud in order to process things. This entire DTS there has been great information (so much of it), but I have a hard time processing it byself..it realy helps me to process as I talk about it. It also explains why I procrastinate and why I work better under pressure (spontaneous personality).
The final area that really spoke to me was my identity in Christ. We have to realice who God says that we are, not just who people say we are. We are not identified by what we do, but who we are! God really needs to tell us who we are so that we don’t listen to others’ idea of who we are. In class we prayed and asked to reveal to us who we are and God showed me that I am His daughter, the daughter of the King, a Princess (royalty). I have the authority that my Father God has. I also have access to go see the King as His daughter and come boldly to His throne (Hebrews 4:16). I would challenge those reading this: ask God to give you His identity for you. Ask Him to reveal to you who He says that you are and He will do this!
Well, we are on the last week of teaching now…our topic this week is Leadership and Communication. We found out this week we are supposed to be leaving probably April 14th for our NIKO (this is an intense 4 day training), then we leave for our outreach phase which will be split between Monteverde (rainforest area of Costa Rica) and Puerto Viejo (the Caribbean side of Costa Rica). Please pray for our team as we are preparing for the next week and half before we leave with dramas and children’s ministry. Please pray specifically for unity and love amongst ourselves and for boldness as we share what God is doing in our lives. Thank you all for your love and encouragement! J
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