AMANDA's RESPONSE

  Hola..Just finished up listening to the B&B.
Very good perspective..about rest. It opened my eyes to how I have been abiding in Him. When you are asking God to make you new and stretch you, your days can be some highs and lows at the same time..with God. It is a very emotional time for a long period of time, the spirit has lead me to abide in Him rather than get caught up in the roller coaster of emotions.How do I rest in this moment? Now doing this..when those times come I am grounded and don't waiver with my thoughts. The enemy tries to hang out some bait at those times when my emotions are happy or sad. Now that I have been abiding in Him daily..sometimes hourly..at times:) I have a deeper faith of confidence while abiding in Him in rest .I am finding rest in Him through struggles and obstacles put daily in my path. I often hear my heart pouring into someone else with edifying words and going out of my way to love on someone else in need. How do I have time for that? I love having a life now based on priorities being in order with time for my God and my family.
Thank you for sharing everyone who had their hand in this B&B.

ATHENA's RESPONSE:

  Reading your comment, Di, made me realize that I need to go back and listen again with undivided attention.., I was multi tasking when I listened and believe from your comments that I missed much that I NEED to hear! Thank you, thank you!!

DIANE's RESPONSE:

:>) what encouraged me most was listening to the voices as the group interacted and even after the closing prayer their sharing grew more reverent, as if they really sensed the presence of the Holy Spirit there. I imagined their changed countenance and their hearts softened. That is why I cried. I felt like I was watching God loving on them. Like Jay said in the following tape I listened to next, how could we settle for any other kind of reality when heaven is hovering over each of our heads. I am in a bible study at my church on Exodus. In this last session the teacher pointed out how many times the Lord told the people to gather, to eat and remember Him. She said what we remember is what drives most of our decisions in life. She challenged us. "What do you remember? Is it the most incredible thing that ever happened to you or the saddest thing or what. Take those memories and put them in a basket this week she asked gently. And then offer them up to the Lord saying, I want to be remembering You instead.

GLENDA's RESPONSE:

"How can I not be at peace if I really believe in you". Karen prayed this in her closing prayer. This is becoming more and more a reality in my life as I learn to depend more and more on my Heavenly Father. For a very long time I lived as everyone said was 'normal'. I mean, everyone gets frustrated and annoyed when things go wrong and people mistreat you, right? That was what I saw in the examples of all the believers around me! I prayed about decisions and certainly asked God for help if someone wronged me in a big way and I knew I needed to forgive them -- but peace, about things like a car that wouldn't start or a website that kept going wrong? I'd never heard of THAT sort of thing. Then God brought Jay into my life. Through a story way too long to tell here I was wide open to being discipled by him and in Him I saw a whole brand new way of life. A life FULL of that peace Karen prayed about. A life where the yoke IS light. I saw that life CAN be lived without that roller coaster of emotions that Amanda referred to. I am learning to have that kind of life. It is amazing the peace we can have in the most difficult and painful circumstances when we are wearing HIS yoke. We aren't in control, the Master is, He will take care of it. We are HIS children, overflowing with HIS love to others around us. I am so excited to learn more all the time about HOW to function as HIS body, the more I learn the more life changing I see this is going to be!

DIANE's RESPONSE:

Glenda, you have listened to all the tapes on the website and so you know what I mean when I say that I feel like I am a brick in the fire right now. and there is a stripping away which leaves me speechless. Thank you for your faithfulness to our Lord.

JAY's RESPONSE:

This is one of those 'normal' kind of attacks that often happens when we are in the process of really, REALLY growing in the LORD. The FIRST time I remember dealing w/ this type of attack was back in th 70's. We would have staff meetings @ our house every TH nite, which were critical to our ministry on F & ST nites. Karen & I didn't usually argue & fight, but it got to where we'd have this ONCE A WEEK "@ each other's throat" thing. After several weeks of this, we were in the middle of ANOTHER one, just before everyone was coming over & I stopped Karen & said ... "HEY ... do you see what's REALLY going on, here???" & explained to her the frequency & the timing. We stopped & prayed ... & resolved that the next time we had this begin to happen, the FIRST one who saw it was to STOP US ... & bring us to prayer. & STOP IT WE DID!!! Just realizing how the enemy was working, & praying the GRACE of the LORD over it ... those kind of attacks stopped in just a few weeks!!!
I'd encourage EACH of you to look closely in your own lives & see IF there is SOMEthing that is trying to keep you from being spiritually effective in ANY area you're growing in ... & caution you to be particularly alert when it comes to our Aslan's Song fellowship. The enemy of our soul just HATES it when the Body of Christ truly begins to walk In an understanding of the "inheritance in the saints" that we have in each other.
THANKS for posing this, Glenda, so we can be aware of YOUR needs, & the need to keep each other in prayer.