More than you could ask or think…

There were several key things the Lord taught and showed me during my LDC. One was that I was living in the fear of man!. God exposed an area of my life which needing dealing with. He reminded me of a time when I was around 10yrs old where I made a declaration to myself that I would never trust anyone. The reason for this was to protect myself from anyone trying to or wanting to hurt me. This came out of a hurtful experience I was going through at the time. This declaration was born out of the seed of the fear of man. I am so grateful for caring staff who helped me walk through this area of the fear of man. I am now feeling a greater freedom and confidence to walk more in the fear of the Lord!

Having a God Gap

Another area where I was challenged in was living with a God “gap”. This is where you have this area in your life where you need to see God come through, to trust God for a breakthrough. I realised that as I have grown in the Lord I have also become accustomed, relaxed and confident of God and his ways. This has led me to take change more and more and to become more consumed with planning and organising my life to the place where I can almost guarantee what the outcome will be. A good example of this was when I was stranded in Europe because of the volcanic ash and had already missed a day of my LDC class. On the second day (Tuesday) I felt the Lord speak to me about not trying to organise and plan my way down to Malaga (a 3 day road trip!) but simply to relax and enjoy the day.This was very hard to do!! But, I did. My friends took me into Copenhagen and we spent the day enjoying the sights of this delightful city. We returned home at about 4pm and checked on the flight status. To my surprise there were two flights opened for Wednesday and Malaga was one of them. I quickly booked my seat. I arrived to a fairly deserted airport at 3am as my flight was leaving at 6am. All the departure screens had cancelled on all the flight except mine and the other one. I boarded the flight and arrived in Malaga three hours later. I reflected, as I was flying, that if I had not have listened to God’s promptings, I would have been in a car for a three day trip down to Malaga. Three days or three hours? That depends on your God Gap!!

Being Spirit Led

I want to be living more where I don’t know what’s going to happen or how it’s going happen and I therefore need the Lord to come through for me. I also want to become more spontaneous to the Spirit’s leading and trust the Holy Spirit to show me and guide me in what to say. I am still very much wanting to be planned and organised but just not to the point where I have little or no God Gap. My wonderful planning would have denied me a quick trip to Malaga and seeing God come through for me in such a miraculous way!!

Watching my Tongue

Another area God has challenged me in and revealed to me is in the area of my tongue! I have come to realise much more clearly how my words affect other people. I have been insensitive to others and their feelings. Many times I just blurt out what I believe the Lord is speaking to me, rather than first asking the Holy Spirit how I should say it so that it is spoken in the most loving way possible. I hate to think how many people I have wounded because of my lack of sensitivity. If you are one of them then I am truly sorry and ask for your forgiveness.

The future…

There are too many things to share and which would take pages to do so. So, in closing can I please ask you to be praying for me? There are a lot of things I feel God has spoken to me about – my future, my leadership, my passion and what God would have me focus and work on. I really need wisdom and clarity in knowing how to move forward into these things. I am excited and I do look forward with anticipation how things will unfold. I don’t want to be busy doing good things but rather engaged in doing the right things.

Some sad news…

In closing I would like to ask you to pray for Penny. As we landed back in Bangkok, Penny received a text message from her mum saying that her father had passed away in the early hours of Sunday morning. This is, of course, a very difficult and emotional time for Penny. She would love to be with her family now for the funeral, however she was blessed recently to be able to see her dad, plus it is not really very possible as she has already been away from the ministry for the past five weeks. Please pray for God’s comfort and that she’ll be able to properly grieve the loss of her dad while she is absent from her family.

Thanks again for all your love, encouragement and support.

With love
Paul and Penny.