Live Like a Princess

College women!  I cannot believe you've already begun your freshman year.  I am so thankful for you; whenever I think of you, I pray.  I hope you're all settling in and overcoming homesickness (don't worry, it will pass).  Remember, with Christ at your center, you are always home because HE is always with you.

I am slowly making my way through an amazing book called The Supernatural Ways of Royalty (if you read my blog last month, you already know this) and the quote below really struck me this morning:

"Water baptism is the prophetic act that initiates a covenant relationship with God.  According to Romans chapter six, when we go underwater in baptism, it is a prophetic declaration that we are being buried with Christ in death.  When we come up out of the water, we are demonstrating that our life is now found in Christ who raised us from the dead (see Romans 6:3-11).  "It is no longer I who live by Christ who lives in me" (Gal. 2:20)."

Whether or not you've experienced water baptism, the point is that you've accepted Christ as your Savior, as the purpose of your life; you died to yourself and were raised as His precious daughter, love of His life.  Remember that - you are the daughter of YAHWEH, that's no small thing!  That means you are ROYALTY. Woo Hoo!  Haven't you always wanted to be a princess (I know I have)?  Guess what...You Are!  And you are going to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven because God promised this to His people a long, long time ago and last I checked, He is faithful.

I know it's challenging to really believe this, we are all so used to earning things, we aren't used to having grace and blessings fall on us like rain.  But He wants to cover us in grace, He wants to us to soak in His love and blessings.  He wants us to live like royalty.  So how do we do this?  Especially in college; small fish, big ponds.

Here is where you start: remember that your life is found in Christ.  I have said this to many of you before, and I will say it again because you're probably realizing this at school: the world is full of people who haven't realized that Christ created them for relationship with Him.  The world is full of people wandering around searching for themselves,  not realizing that Christ is what they're looking for. You are not one of those people.  You searched and found the LORD.  How blessed are you!  You don't need to look any further for what defines you, you know.  It stirs in your soul and flushes through your blood.  Who are you?  You are the precious daughter of Christ, the LORD delights in you.

College is like a mini-world within the world and evil is prowling.  With so many people searching for "themselves", many are bound to search in the wrong places and evil is waiting.  Be cautious and be encouraging; build each other up in faith and present the  gospel to one another and to your friends at school.  Don't be fooled, the drinking, the drugs, the sex, the cheating, the partying are all traps.  Poppers (people who do not realize they are royal) believe these things will give them what they're looking for - purpose, value - but WE know that's not true.  They need Jesus and pray they find Him, but remember that YOU already have Him, don't go looking for anything else.  No other water can satisfy you like the life-giving water that springs from the eternal well of our LORD.  Live like the princess you are, see yourself the way He sees you.

Because I miss you and our campaigners, let me ask you a couple questions for old times sake.  Please call/Skype  each other to talk about these questions this week.  And, of course, talk to your old YL leaders if you want :) 

1. God sees you as a princess, do you see yourself that way?
2. What does it mean to live as a princess?
3. Have you noticed that many of your peers are searching for "themselves"?
1. Where are they searching? 
2. What darkness have you seen?

4. Have you been tempted?   What tempts you?  Why do you think it does?
5. How do you combat this? 

6. How did Jesus combat temptation?  Find the scripture...check Luke.

Now pray.

Have a blessed week!  I pray your conversations are fruitful and revealing and I pray you continue to thirst for the Lord (Ps. 63).

Put Down the Paddle

I am reading an incredible book called The Supernatural Ways of Royalty, written by two pastors: Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton (go get a copy – it’s a must read!).  This morning, what I was reading struck me as Truth and I wanted to share it.  I love the imagery they use to talk about how we exist as believers of Jesus Christ, our heart and mind having been completely transformed and made new through the cross. 

“A New Heart and New Mind”

“The truth of the matter is that we are good because we have received a new heart and a new mind (1 Cor 2:16).  That’s right – we received a brain transplant!  We actually think like God!  I have heard these verses misquoted so many times:  ‘Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who Love him.’ For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.  For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?  Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.  But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.  But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.  ‘Who has known the mind of the LORD, that he will instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:9-16).

“Paul is not saying that we don’t know what God has prepared for us; he is saying that they (the Old Testament believers) didn’t know what God had prepared for them because they were not ‘new creatures.’ But we have the mind of Christ because we are born of His Spirit.  We think like God.

“We still have a free will, and we can still choose to sin.  However, as saints it doesn’t come easily anymore.  There is a river of God that runs through our souls and carries us towards the throne.  If we don’t paddle we will end up at God’s house.  We are prone to righteousness.  That is why Paul said: It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20).

~*~

Isn’t it great to know that we can put our paddles down and just ride-out the tide?  With all the stress and demands at work and even at home, I find incredible peace in knowing that less is needed of me and more is accomplished through Christ. 

Authority

Something my husband read to me this morning really made me stop and think, so much so that I thought I should share it with you...

"The devil only stops doing things when we tell him to in the name of Jesus.

"God gave authority to man - Adam,
man subleased it to Satan,
God became man - in Jesus - to strip the devil of this authority
and died on the cross to empower us with that authority."

-Col 2:15, 1 John 3:8, Col 1:13, 1 John 4:4

"It's one thing that we have been given authority, another thing to live in it and exercise it."

Let that soak in.