Spiritual Growth + Breakthroughs!!

Where do I begin? For the past two months, God has been working on me steadily. I have been having spiritual breakthroughs back to back at a faster rate than I have ever experienced in my entire Christian life. First, I had to completely give over my entire life to God and completely trust in him for everything. That was very hard for me to do because I tend to worry and want to do things on my own. Once I did that, I started seeing God bless in big ways that only he could do!

Next God began putting it on my heart to completely forgive and love those who have maliciously hurt me; to leave the past behind and pray for my enemies. I have prayed for my enemies before, but this time was very different, I felt the hurts being replaced with love for my enemies. For me, that was a huge breakthrough.

Trusting in God completely and Forgiving and loving  for my enemies was just the beginning of my growth. The third big growth that God has been doing is purifying my heart and getting rid of any pride, anger, resentment, and anything that is not of God. It has taken many trials and tribulations to get to this stage but I can honestly say, it's all been worth it. The times that I turned the other cheek and refused to retaliate through words or actions. When my enemies mocked me or tried to deliberately hurt me, I remained faithful to God and cried out to him to help me. It took me praying to get rid of self and swallowing my pride; it's not easy when someone attacks the people that you love or your character. 

Through it all, God has been my protector, my strong tower; he covers me with his wings. The place that I am at now is so amazing. My focus is on God and what he wants for my life and I no longer have the anxiety or depression that the enemy was trying to bring against me. I know that those were Satan's tools to try to bring me down, but God has delivered me out of the pit! As God's soldier + prayer warrior, Satan is fighting with all the powers of hell to bring me down. He knows the powerful things that God can do through me and he is shaking in his boots. He will not be victorious!

"For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us know be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." Galations 6:8-9

I have been hearing from God that restoration is coming and the verse "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord" resonated with me recently. (Psalms 27:14) 

I have been so encouraged and also sharing in these victories with my husband, and it has been building his faith as well. He has watched God working in the physical as well as spiritual; blessing our finances through checks that God has sent to us in the mail. If that doesn't build your faith, I don't know what will! 

Our hearts cannot become pure if we don't first go through the fire. Sometimes, it takes hitting rock bottom to first find God and learn how to trust in him and lean on him. I'm so glad that my life hasn't been perfect or I wouldn't have this beautiful relationship with God. I'll take that any day over money, popularity or fame. I am storing up my treasures in my eternal heaven, not here on earth. This place is just temporary, but eternity is forever. I am going to do everything in my power to be a light and help others make it in to Heaven. That is my ultimate purpose here in life.

What has been ways that God has increased your faith?

Getting Ready for Restoration!!

Wow, where do I start?! So much has been going on and the hubby and I have been working insanely crazy to the point of exhaustion. We are both in need of a much needed break; but before we get to that, let's talk about what we were able to accomplish the past week!

Past Week Accomplishments: 
>> I have been picking up limbs and sticks for an entire week from Hurricane Hermine
>> Ordered 18 tons of dirt and helped hubby with filling dirt for our concrete drive for the garage
>> Hubby framed out and dug for the well house and the garage drive
>> Cleaned Roof
>> Cleaned Deck
>> Ordered Propane
>> Ordered Tub Tool
>> Ordered Lawn Mower Blades
>> Ordered some healthy food items, drinks on Amazon and Jet
>> Ordered a Kate Spade iPhone charger (when our electricity was out, I really relied on my back up chargers! Plus, they are great to have while on vacation & there is no access to an outlet)
>> Hubby cut wooded area
>> Purchased a new Ryobi weed trimmer- amazing!
>> Ordered a replacement Keurig + some kcups
>> Picked out our new Kitchen Backsplash- Natural Color Hexagon
>> Booked Hotel for Beach Stay! ( I'm so excited for some R&R, including some delicious seafood, beach, reading books & shopping!)

I have to tell you, something is going on behind the scenes and God is working!! This scripture keeps showing up on my Pinterest, Facebook, etc and I wanted to share. I read it aloud to the hubby and felt God's presence around me. God has seen the struggle that my husband and I have gone through for over 5 years now. There were several things that Satan stole from us but I have been diligently praying for restoration and for God to bless us with seven-fold what Satan has stolen from us.

I really don't discuss our problems or things that we go through with anyone or share via social media- that's why I have my blog so that I can safely write here. I hope that writing about the things that I go through, will somehow help someone else and at the same time, allow them to see how prayer works and how good God is!!

We have been through so much throughout these past 5 years when all we had to depend on was God, when everyone else walked out. We went through losing our dog of 15 years, losing half the money on selling our home, losing half of a salary that we were accustomed to, my husband losing his Father, his job. We had to work a hard job on the road for almost 8 months and it was not easy, but we worked hard and trusted in God for our future. We went through struggling with almost 8 months of unemployment- literally, no one would hire us. It got to the point that we didn't know how we were going to make it but God got us through until the last few dollars and he performed a miracle and I got a great job and soon after the hubby did as well!

God has been beyond good to the husband and I throughout the years. It has been a struggle for us, but it has made us depend even more on God to get through things. I have watched him heal our dog when he was completely paralyzed, I have witnessed being on our last few dollars and he deliver us with jobs and money, I have watched God help us financially when things have gotten rough. But I don't complain that we have gone through any of these things. Yes, we lost money on our home, yes, we don't have the same financial lifestyle that we had before and we have had to make sacrifices but God has taken care of us every time!

Everyday, sometime during the day I go on a walk up and down our drive and I talk to God about what is going on in our lives and I pray over our future. I pray mostly about God restoring what Satan has stolen from us. I watch my husband every day, diligently work even though he deserves more and is meant for greater things, but he never complains. My heart hurts for him and I pray over him daily for God to bless his future and for him to be successful and be in the favor of God. One thing that I really love about my husband is that he is extremely intelligent but he is never boastful or proud about it.  In this day and age, that is extremely rare. I have been watching God bless us in the past few weeks about some things that I have been praying over and I know that he is working on our future. The hubby and I talk about things that happen and we both know that it is God working! Right now, I couldn't be more excited for our future and the blessings that are on the way!

What are you praying/trusting in God for today?

Finding the Silver Lining//

Hello y'all! Sorry for disappearing- usually when I don't blog, it's because there is just so much going on in my life. I hope that changes soon, because I really love coming here to write. Remember when I wrote about how I had been sick? If you haven't seen the blog post, you can check it out here.

The good news is that for the past week, I have been feeling much better! Not all of my symptoms are completely gone, but the really serious ones have not come back after 7 days- so I am claiming the healing! I still do not know exactly what was wrong with me, but it was something extremely serious and I know that because of  the prayers from friends and family- that God heard our prayers and healed my body. I could feel whatever it was, constantly eating away at my insides and losing weight rapidly- definitely not a good feeling. But I never stopped praying and never stopped believing that God was going to heal me. When the enemy tried to sneak in with words like stomach cancer and pancreatic cancer, I refused to claim it- I prayed and declared healing over my body. Jesus said, "For truly if you have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Remove from here to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you."

To be honest, I didn't realize how much my health truly meant to me, until it was being taken away. It is extremely devastating to be in my thirties and having to deal with health issues. It has been a huge wake-up call for me to make some changes in my life. I am still unable to eat gluten or soy without having reactions like my throat closing up, so I have had to eliminate them altogether. Dairy and sugar still aggravate me as well so I am looking into changing over completely to stevia and possibly coconut milk, hopefully that will help.

So, you know how I always find the silver lining in every trial? Well, the silver lining to this trial is that now do I not only appreciate being in good health, but also that I finally lost the weight that I have been trying to get off for the last couple of years. I have lost 17 pounds in a 2 month time frame- there is no way that I could have done that without being sick. I was not planning on giving up my pasta and cheese anytime soon- I can't help it, I'm a major foodie! So if there is something to be thankful for through this trial, that would be it! On top of all of that, my faith has become even stronger, if that is even possible. I truly believe that with faith and prayer, that anything is possible!!

I just want to say thank you to the ones who checked on me and prayed for me- the support means so much to me. It's such a blessing to have my health back and I beyond grateful. To celebrate, the hubby and I are going to Seaside tomorrow to take a much needed break! Plus, we are going to celebrate his birthday since we didn't get to celebrate last Monday. Speaking of, I need to go & pack a beach bag- we are leaving early tomorrow morning!

I did some research on Seaside, FL and they have lots of cute little shops and foodie trucks. The Truman Show was also filmed in this little town as well as the Food Network. I am so excited to sample from all of the different foodie trucks!