God story

A Great Light

/ Jana / Leave a comment

I was adding ornaments to my tree this morning. I had to laugh. They look like miniature disco balls. But they also looked liked mosaics. Broken shards delicately placed together to form a whole new piece of art.  And when the little white Christmas lights hit them, “Voila!”

Sparkles. Colors. Reflections bouncing everywhere. Grabbing color from the tree and other nearby ornaments, it became so much more in the light.

You were made to reflect the light. Not be the center or source of light, but close enough to reflect and bounce and dare I say it, dance in the light.

No wonder then that Jesus is called the great light that has come into the world. No wonder the darkness can not overcome Him. No wonder we look and feel so much better when we are close to Him. He came so we could reflect Him. Brilliantly, beautifullly, eternally.

And just as an exclamation point to this thought, I came back to the tree a little later in the morning and the sun was shining on the tree…talk about glowing!

So shine baby, shine.

“Blessed is the people who know the joyful sound;
they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance.”  Psalm 89:15

 

First Things First

/ Jana / 1 Comment

Since the beginning of November, God has been bringing the story of two fish and five loaves ( John 6) around and around. From  different perspectives and places, He just keeps teaching and revealing. And the bottom line: give thanks and believe.

Don’t look at the circumstances: 5,000 people needing to be fed (15,000 if you count women and children). Don’t look at what you’ve got in your hand: two fish and five loaves.  Look at Who you are with. The Son of the Most High God.

And what does He do? He looks to heaven and gives thanks for what God is about to do. Then as calmly as can be, the disciples began distributing. And they just kept on distributing. There were 12 baskets of leftovers. Not 12 cups. Twelve baskets.  This is after everyone has had their fill. There was no Black Friday stampeding here. Everyone had enough and there were leftovers even.

Who is this God, who is this Jesus, who is this Spirit that can impact our natural world with their supernatural power? The same God that is with you today.

Don’t look at the crowds or  your meager offering. Look to heaven, give thanks and then do what He has told you to do. He is faithful.

Here are some pearls from Abiding Glory on Sunday about gratitude that God has been expanding for me.

1) “Kingdom protocol is first “God, thank you” then please.” “ Jesus always thanked God first before He asked anything. We are instructed to “enter his courts with thanksgiving” then we proceed to the inner courts for petitions. This is a weighty concept but will change your faith life and your prayer life.

2) “Gratitude is never invisible or silent.” I love this. It is not enough to be thankful, you must express it. To God, to others. We often expect God and other people to “know” we are grateful.  But both you and the other person are blessed when you tell them, show them you are thankful. Already this week, I have been very conscious about expressing my thanks to Him and those who bless me.

3) “Gratitude sustains joy and blessing. Without it, you soon begin to take your blessing for granted.“ Ouch. This one hits way too close to home. Everything we have is a gift from God. EVERYTHING.  Be sure to sit in a posture of thanks rather than “I deserve this.”

4) “Gratitude begins where my sense of entitlement ends.”  It is hard to be thankful and be demanding at the same time. We are consumed in our country, and the Church, with our rights, our privileges. When “you owe me” turns into “I am so blessed,” things shift in our soul.

5) “Grateful people can find a blessing, enlarge a blessing or create a blessing in almost any circumstance.” I don’t know about you, but I want this to be my life motto.  Because the opposite affect scares me to death: Negative people can miss a blessing, minimize a blessing and destroy a blessing in almost any circumstance.

Let us be the people who remember the goodness of our God. Look to Him. Give thanks. Live in His blessing.

 

Remind me…

/ Jana / Leave a comment

Remind me who I am.

This has been a week of loving reminders.  God created or stirred, from all directions, a message of loving determination.  His determination to show me love.  From butterflies (in November?), to emailed heart photos, to texts with prophetic scripture, to even a powerful dream through another person, God has been ardently, annoyingly, persistently pursing me. Why annoyingly?  Because when I am mad, or whining, or feeling sorry for myself, His acts of affections draw me out of my drama. And sometimes, sadly, I want to STAY in my drama. At least it feels that way. But finally His love broke through. His continued reminders of past promises and His faithfulness today, His repeating of my pet name, His beauty for my ashes, these God touches broke down my walls.

My heart opened again and I breathed in His intimate tenderness. Oddly enough the whining and self pity slipped away. They can’t stand in the face of His grace.  It truly is “His kindness that leads us to repentance.” Here is the kicker…Right before I got ready to teach the WGR class, my friend handed me card, sheepishly. “He told me me to give you this, ” she said.

On one side it read: He told me to “remind you.”

On the other side were words to a song. I began reading them and casually dismissed them, ‘Oh, this is a Bethany Dillon song.’ But as I kept reading, a sob caught in my throat. I quickly left the room and went to the hall so I could cry in private.

In a moment I was transported back in time. I could see the sun, and feel the wind off the beach as I re-read them.  The written words were my words. Or rather, His words.

You sing over me, You sing over me

You wave your hands and dance around

Sing of dreams, desires all over me

washing, rolling, wondering over me

There’s no love better than yours

It was a song we had written together a year before. And the over-arching message of that beach trip was His delight. Could I, would I be willing to do life with the only measure being His delight?  It was the perfect touch after a hard week of questions and hurting.

How beautiful is our God?

I am putting the song below for your listening. Read the lyrics and soak in the truths. They are for you too. And my take-aways this week, among many, are listen and DO the prompting of God. Every one of these touches came from people who thought they were crazy to reach out. But God used them to help me. Finally, receive. Look, believe, receive the beauty, the tenderness, the truths of God. They surround us always. “There’s no love better than yours.”

My Pleasure

Here I am. Waiting. Listening
Wanting to feel your Holy touch
Need to hear your words flood my soul
Feel your pleasure Lord
There’s no sound, better than yours.

Here I am. Hungry, Eager.
Believing that you’re smiling too
Glad that I’ve come to be with you
You love to hear my voice
there’s no sound better than worship

You sing over me, You sing over me

You wave your hands and dance around

Sing of dreams, desires all over me

washing, rolling, wondering over me

There’s no love better than yours

We’re here again. Mingling. Meshing.
Loving the oneness of two
Drink in the wonder of You
I love your presence Lord
There’s no pleasure better
than yours

Jana Spicka, Real.Life Worship CD

 

Women Getting Real Weekly Class

/ Lyschel / Leave a comment

Remaining class dates are: Oct 11 & 25, Nov 8 & 22, Dec 6 & 13

I am shooting for the moon. I am flinging open the doors and inviting you in.

We believe that God wants to share life intimately with us. Most of us have heard that. Some of us experience that. Many of us are at least open to the idea. So we try different things to move into this life with God.

We also believe that God wants us to share life intimately with each other. And that is… where we close the book; turn off the TV; hit delete.

But it is true. From my humble perspective, after speaking to many, many folks from different parts of the country, and even in Zimbabwe, it seems that we don’t really like each other and for sure don’t want to get too close. This is especially true of Christian women. We often feel the most shut down and shut out relationally.

However. This is the very miracle of “God among us.” When we come together, it isn’t just you and me and our drama. It is you and me and our drama and the Living God. There is a power and synergy and healing that can happen when the Spirit of God is given permission and freedom to live and move and breathe within us together.

We see things. We hear things. We experience things that we couldn’t see, hear, experience alone. I have amazing revelations with the Lord alone. But it is radically different from what happens when I am with other believers. I hear your story and it taps into my story and vice versa. Your breakthroughs strengthen me. Your weaknesses reveal mine. And our shared bond of Christ keeps us looking to the One who heals and restores all things.

So I want to extend a personal invitation to you. Through the WGR class we desire to create a community of authentic, honest, real relationships. We desire to dispense with the petty comparisons, the surface mindless chatter and go for real heart connections. We desire to journey and not judge, to strengthen and encourage instead of play denial or fix-it games.

Women Getting Real Class is beginning August 23rd and you are invited to come. BUT you are also invited to join in with some of your friends and be part of the the online connection.  Many folks can’t come in person but they still want the connection. So can you, will you, take the effort and invest in real community? Will you gather 1-4 of your friends and watch the class together and really participate, share and go deeper with Christ and with someone else? You sitting in front of a computer is still you looking from the outside in. It is safe. And sanitized. And comfortable.

Life with God and others is messy and marvelous. It is a rollercoaster and a haven. Real honest relationship is life-changing.

If you are playing the “I just need me and God” card, will you consider adding a card to your deck called  “sharing your God life with others”? If you are playing the “I don’t trust other people” card, will you add the “I trust God in those people” card? Even if you have been burned before, will you learn the lessons of what not to do and try again?

Whether you like it or not, agree with it or not, even know how to do it or not, we are a Body. His body. We need to be together in some way, to share His Spirit among us. The WGR community on Tuesday nights, live in person, or live in your living room, is one humble honest way for us to share that connection.

Pray about it. Look at the obstacles and excuses. Then ask the Lord for the courage and faith to do Real Life with Him and others.

Sweetly Broken – Abortion Healing

/ Lyschel / Leave a comment
Sweetly Broken

Finally find freedom with yourself, God and others about your abortion.

Play One Woman's Story

 

“I thought I was over it.”

“I’ve never told anyone.”

“I’m afraid God is punishing me.”

“How can I make this right?”

“How can I forgive….?”


We know how you feel. We have been there too. Through the fear, nightmares, denial, anger and regrets.

But we have passed through to a new place called peace, and true forgiveness. We are still sad about the fact of our past, but we are no longer held captive by it.

God has shown us there is beauty in our brokenness.

We invite you to a tender, honest and safe weekend to hear about how to walk forward in freedom.

What you can expect:

Time to process, time to worship, time to hear truth, time to be honest, time to sort out what’s next?

Teaching and materials by Jana Spicka. Assisted by Alexa Stephenson.
2 night’s lodging in a large spacious chalet.
Check in at 3pm. Check out at 11am.
Heated pool on site.
Four meals and snacks. Breakfast, lunch and dinner on Saturday and breakfast on Sunday morning. (Friday night dinner is on your own before first session.)

This is an intimate gathering limited to 12 women. Click here to register now or become a donor.

$40 per Woman Attending Retreat

$100 Donor/Prayer Partner

We want every woman who needs to come, to be able to come but they need your help spiritually and financially. We want every women who comes to have a prayer warrior standing with her in spirit, and to help her bear the burden of the cost. Will you invest your prayers and your funds in another woman’s freedom?

Join us for this unique retreat held at Smoky Mountain Christian Village, a beautiful complex out of the traffic zone of Pigeon Forge, TN.

Yes and Amen Retreat

/ Lyschel / Leave a comment

“For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.“
2 Corinthians 1:20

Friday, April 13 through Sunday, April 15, 2012

We are going to use this “get away from the world time” to talk about:

What are God’s dreams for us?

What does He see for our lives, and our futures?

What has He already said, “Yes and Amen” to that we just don’t know about yet?

How do women get Un-stuck?

False expectations and demands around food, sex, beauty, and love (and the Lord only knows what else…) What lifts women up?

Rest and release in the love of God.

Freedom to use our voice and heart.

Letting go of the need to control.


Join us for this unique retreat held at Smoky Mountain Christian Village.  A beautiful complex out of the traffic zone of Pigeon Forge, TN

Weekend Package Includes:  Cost is only $80!

  • Five sessions of Teaching and Materials with Jana Spicka
  • 2 Night’s Lodging in a large and spacious chalet.  Heated pool and nature trails on site.
  • Four Meals and Snacks. Breakfast, lunch and dinner on Saturday and breakfast on Sunday morning. (Friday night dinner is on your own before first session.)

This is an intimate gathering limited to 18 women. So don’t wait to register.

Reserve Your Spot Today

 

Click here to hear a testimony from one of last years attendees.

Women Getting Real Weekly Class

/ Lyschel / Leave a comment

This  is a great place to go deeper into relationship with Jesus and  other  women. Both seem scary we know. But this is a place where we talk  about  real life topics and look for God to show up in the middle of  our lives.

The class is for all ages and does not require perfect attendance. Or homework.

Join us in person at Fellowship Church on Middlebrook Pike,  Knoxville,TN every Tuesday night from 7:00pm – 9:00pm (childcare is  provided for those who register).

For specific details around the class please feel free to email us at info@womengettingreal.com.

We meet three weeks on and one week off. Dates of class are listed below. We are planning to Livestream at least once month. So stay tuned for those details. Be sure to sign up for RSS or Facebook alerts so you don’t miss out on “Monday Snack Time with Jana”, its a weekly vlog.

Class Dates for Spring Semester 2011: April 5, 19, 26; May 3, 17, 24, 31
(new class location coming soon, stay tuned for details)

To hear audio from classes up until now check out our archived classes

Follow the Sun

/ Jana / 1 Comment

I have this way of doing life. It has its similarities and routines. I go through motions without even thinking sometimes. I can do my God life like that too. Do you know what I mean? Reading, listening, even praying in a kind of auto pilot sort of way? I can do life without absorbing the beauty around me.

This morning the Lord ever so sweetly turned my attention to Him. I was driving in my old familiar route doing errands and I kept noticing the sunrise. It was amazing with its pinks and purples. When I got back in my car to head home, the same way I always go, I kept getting this urge to look at the sky. As I was driving, I had this moment to choose to go home the same old way, or to go a different way and enjoy the sunrise. In a split second I chose the new way. When I pulled onto the interstate, the sun came up as a vibrant orange red ball on the horizon.

It was breathtakingly beautiful. Like out of body, awestruck, don’t know how to process this much beauty, kind of beautiful.

As I was soaking in the wonder, I heard, “Always follow the beauty of the Son.”

My prayer for you today is that God will show you the new choices you can make. And I pray that you will have the faith, courage, and desire to take new paths that will enable you to see the beauty of the Son. Amen.

Delight in Us

/ Jana / Leave a comment

Have you ever noticed that when you love someone, you also love to surprise, delight and “bless” them?  By bless, I mean to bring joy or make happy, to bestow gladness of heart.  It’s fun for them and that makes it fun for you.

So when God says all throughout the Bible that He loves us and delights in us, it means that HE gets pleasure out of making us happy, bringing us joy, bestowing gladness upon our hearts. He wins, we win. I love the way God does math.

Yesterday I was reflecting on the word “delight” which is what He gave me at the beach. And within one hour I received three random God stories to give evidence of His delight. Three different women, one loving God.

One woman was having a hard day and just shot up an arrow prayer. “I just asked Jesus for a kiss,” said my friend. She got this a few minutes later.

And her response?  “Oh how I love Him!”  Blessing bring devotion. Delight makes happy the heart, especially His delight poured into our hearts.

My other friend had been stressing about a party she was giving. She was relating to the Lord her concern about the cost of the gifts, favors, and the restaurant. And what did she get in her email inbox ten minutes later?  A coupon that would drop her meal cost by 50%.  Wow. She was thrilled at His provision for a place she had reserved weeks ago. “He’s so intimately acquainted, so sweet!” was her delighted response.

My third story is about a friend who “went looking for God” and thought she came home empty-handed with just a shell and few photos.  “I was a little disappointed” she told me on the phone when I asked about her date weekend with Lord.  But then the pieces started coming together. Here it is in her words:

“I have been thinking about this shell and talking to HIM about its meaning and I’m just undone.  I had asked, “How do you see me”?

He said, “Most people see a closed heart with barnacle scars. But I see a huge heart and beautiful colors just waiting to be revealed.”

I asked HIM to show me He loved me and He gave me this heart- this broken heart.  HE reassured me that HE knows my heart is broken.  HE knows I feel rejected, unworthy, alone and forgotten.  He revealed His beauty to me, kissed my cheek and reminded me of all the wonderful work HE is doing inside my clamped shut, sand-filled, barnacled scarred heart.
He is so good and I am undone.”

Delight is a two way street.  There is both a giver and receiver. And both hearts are made glad by the connection. Delight yourself in Him for He greatly delights in you. Selah.

He Loves to Talk

/ Jana / 2 Comments

I got to run away to the beach for a day and a half. Yes, it was worth it the drive time because that provided great talk time in the car with Chuck.  No, we didn’t take the kids, thus the talk time. Smile.

I went there to hear from God, to catch my breath. I went there to recharge and to get a fresh deposit. I needed my Spirit tank refilled. And boy did He ever fill my tank.  On top of my own, I have three powerhouse God stories that I got today from others. The bottom line for their stories and mine? We love the God who speaks and He lives. He speaks anywhere,  all the time, in the craziest of ways.

Here are the billboards that God drew my attention to on the way to and from the beach. Little did I know that with the first “that’s odd” sign I saw that He was continuing  a conversation. He was pleased to answer my prayers about “Lord, how do I trust You more?”

His instruction to me:

Rest and Relax

What He said about Himself:

Tree of Life
Strong, Stable, Proven
Inspire to love is what I do
(Red) Cross equals Hope
Makes for a new way of thinking
How Beautiful!
Victorious

What He said about me:

Got Faith?  (With a picture of water turned to wine)
Be passionate.
Keeping kids on course.
Be Great.

This did something deep in my spirit. He is all these things and more. And He calls me all these things and more in Christ. And to top it off…there was a heart in the center of my slice of onion at our last restarant. How is that for a punch line!  He’s crazy about us. Look for Him. Ask Him. Listen for Him. Believe that Small Still Voice when it says to  “Look here.”  Tomorrow I will tell about the God stories I got today!!