Fire

Walking back to the car from the FCF service I paused and took in the smell of my surroundings.

"Someone is burning something, it smells good!" I said to my friends as we continued walking.

A sudden realization hit me at that moment. What is it about fires that fascinates the human heart? Or the smokey aroma that fills our senses with delight? If an object is placed in the fire it is consumed, therefore releasing a fragrance. Not all burning fragrances are of a pleasing nature, like burning hair, or plastic understandably so. Yet there are those fragrances such as candles, campfires, incense and the like that bring found memory, comfort, and delight.

What does it mean to burn? According to Webster's to burn means, " flame or glow while consuming a material such as coal or wood". If the Lord is the Loving flame of love and therefore much burn away all that hinders love, would not a fragrance arise from the offering of our heart?

"Set me as a seal upon your heart, a seal upon your arm for love is as strong as death jealousy is fierce as the grave. It flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it"

Song of Songs 8: 6-7

There is no fragrance without burning...

My Light and Salvation

Eight months have gone by since my last post! How incedibly fast time flies, what follows is an entry written this past April:
My first year at the International House of Prayer University is almost over, and with the school year ending comes a new season of summer and its dynamics. My worship team is awesome! Every Monday through Thursday from 8am-12noon I am with a wonderful team doing worship with the word and intercession sets. During intercession we have corporate worsihp as well as times of prayer called "cycles" where we have individuals pray "Apostolic" prayers form the Word. Some prayer topics have been Japan, unsaved family members, FMA (our school), New Zeland, the church of Kansas City and more! It has been awesome to learn how to be an intercessor and partnering with the Lord in prayer. I have really been challanged by James 5:16 where it says,

"Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working".

There have been times then I leave an intercession set and I feel like nothing changed, when in reality my prayers were effectual and were heard by the Lord. How amazing that the creator of the universe would put so much importance upon the words we say. It was he who used words to "speak" the world into creation. Like wise we as his creation "speak" light and release into an atmosphere and we can have confidence that our prayers were not in vain, they reached the ear's of the Lord and he heard our cry. During a band practice with my worship team I remember singing this verse and was hit with this revelation that we are actually "heard" by the Lord!

"In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears."- Psalm 18:6

Reader be encouraged that the Lord hears you and the very cry you have uttered when you are all alone is heard by the Most High!

An more current update is will follow in the next few days!

New Semester=New Changes

After a very loooooong Christmas break school is finally in session! Being gone from school so long made me miss all my friends quite terribly, which made yesterday such a wonderful day! Now that a new semester has begun that means new classes and new changes in my schedule. First=No more 6am sets in the prayer room :( I am actually very sad that I wont get to hear Justin Rizzo

Second=Being an FMA second semester first year student means your schedule is CRAZY!

Third=I have been placed as a worship leader along with another student for one of the 12 FMA teams. Needless to say I am nervous but looking forward to seeing our team grow together, becoming tighter with one another in musicianship, and praising the Lord with reckless abandon!

Please pray for me this semester! At the moment I am feeling overwhelmed, but I have confidence that the Lord won't leave me. I trust his leadership in this season of life for he is my GOOD SHEPHERD and knows exactly what I need!

-Julia

Thoughts on Christmas break

I have come to realize that I am not very good at keeping up with this blog. Sometimes I forget and think to my self, "what's the point? No one reads this anyways". But then I take a step back. A long time ago the Lord put it upon my heart to start writing a blog, even though I am far from the best at keeping it up to date Im still going to try my best!

These past few weeks have been intresting to say the least. I am currently on Christmas break from the International House of Prayer University in Kansas city. While home I have not been doing to much, mostly resting reading Francine Rivers books and cuddling with my cat. The week of Christmas was very busy! Emily and her boyfriend Will and I went and hung out at our dads house. THe next day on Christmas we started at our house then moved to Grandma's then ended at dads! Not two days later I was then in Kansas City Missouri for the Onething conference with IHOP.

While at the conference I was really confronted with the fact that I have an invitation from the Lord for deeper levels of encounter. This invitation I have taken lightly over these past few months. I go to a school where our central focus is prayer and most importantly having personal devotional time. This is one thing that I have not been doing I'm very sorry to say. Though I have hope! Even though I have not been faithful in the secret place the Lord has been prodding me gently ever so much over these past few months. I feel that I am changing from everything I once was and entering into the woman he has made me to be.

I want to be one that is confident in His love that even when I feel rejection I only have to look into his eyes of love and have hurt and disappointment be washed away. I want his songs to flow through me, having no desire for personal gain but rather to see the advance of his kingdom through his music through my voice.

I want to get lost in the ocean of his affection for me!

So here are a few updates on my baking buisness:

-I designed a menu for my Christmas bake sale!

-Went to my old highschool and talked to the teachers about the sale. Many emailed me and I was very busy baking!

-For Christmas I basically recieved an entire kitchen!!

A Kitchen Aid (Red) Artisan Mixer

And made Apron for the kitchen

Book of Cupcake designs

Special food coloring so potent that you only need to stick a tooth pick into the coloring and add it to the frosting ect. and the color is perfect every time! Good bye to the drop drop drop of food coloring!!

A set of bowls starting from measuring cups and getting bigger :)

A set of measuring spoons that are super cute!

A frosting decorating pen

Heart shaped muffin molds

Little desert cook books

A spatula... and i think that is it for now!

I am excited to get to baking and cooking! Though please pray in provision for this new endvor! God has big plans!

-Julia

Sleepless in Kansas City

I would have to admit that Corey Russell is right when he says to only take 20min power naps. I will add to that saying that if you sleep too much during the day you will be up at night! Tonight that is exactly what happened with me. After having a very full day this past Tuesday I found myself nearly falling asleep during our Big Small Group time at IHOPU. I was so happy to go back to my house and take a nap. Turns out I fell asleep around 3pm and woke up around 5:20! I haven't had a long nap like this in a while so my entire sleeping schedule is off.

Yet in these late hours (well late for those who have 6am's in the prayer room the next morning) I can't help but wonder if it is an invitation into a life of prayer. One thing I have struggled with these past few years is maintaining a consistent prayer time. Since coming to IHOP this reality becomes even more clear to me. I must now balance time in the prayer room and personal devotion. Though I must have to admit most often I find myself becoming lax and saying that my required hours are the same thing as my quiet time with the Lord.

This morning i was meditating on this very topic of prayer. It's funny because there have been times when I find myself becoming irritated during an intercession set because it's too loud and I am trying to focus on "My" time to read my portion of scripture. Looking back on those times I say to my self, "You should be engaging during this time of prayer! Begin to develop personal devotion out of the prayer room!". Coming to this realization has helped me enter into these times of corporate prayer. Oh Abba help this stubborn child! Holy Spirit set me ablaze on the inside! I want to burn with the fire of intercession cultivated by spending time with you alone!

With all this to say, please be praying for me that over Christmas break I will maintain the ground I gained in the spirit over these past five months at IHOPU! Pray that Holy Spirit would continue to mold and shape me into the will of the Father even when I find it difficult!

-Julia

Bedtime Thoughts

Wow that Thanksgiving break went by so fast I could hardly call it a break! Saturday night I hung out with the friends who dropped me off from IHOP at my house. My mom welcomed us home with homemade pizza and other delicious things! It was great to just sit down at a table and actually have a meal with people around. Im usually on the go or at my house eating in the kitchen when no one is there. Sunday I joined my mom and we went to Bethany Church in Bloomington, MN which I had attended for the past year while a student at Bethany College of Missions. I saw some of my close friends from last year! Monday I had the opportunity to help out at the King's Banquet which is where many ministries join together to help put on a banquet for the homeless or anyone they find on the streets. It's based off the parable in Luke 14.

I asked those in charge if I could serve by playing piano during the meal, to set the atmosphere. It was really fun because I got to play on the stage of Club 3 Degrees, over the years I have been to many shows there and it was finally my turn to play :) Tuesday I had the opportunity to visit with my awesome godfather over a meal at Olive garden. Following that I went to savers and had a blast looking for christmas gifts all for very low prices! Thank the Lord for thrift stores!

Wednsday I hung out with my sister and Dad down in bloomington! Thursday I had a wonderful thanksgiving meal at my cousins house and even got to skype with my cousine Jacqui who is currently living in Denmark! That night I had one of my friends from college , who is like my big brother, come over to the house and hang out with my mom, sister and I! Friday I had the opportunity to lead worship at an IHOPU Awakening service at my friends ministry called, "Generation Revival". I was nervous because we hardly got to practice but the power of God fell during that meeting and people were set free and healed! Also we were all filled with the Joy of the Lord! The spirit kept moving even past the time the meeting was scheduled to be over! It was quite the late night!

Saturday I joined my mom and Grandma at Olive garden, found a wonderful planner to help me keep my life in order this next semester. I met with my dear friend Emily and her fiance to run through logistics about her wedding this next Saturday. I am organizing a live Jazz band for her reception! After the meeting I had three dear friends come over and help my mom and I make chocolate dipped pretzel rods along with other assorted goodies as a part of my baking buisness down here at IHOP. They were so amazing that they stayed and worked with us till 2am!

Sunday we finally left home in MN and made it back to Kansas City around 8:20pm!

I had such a wonderful time, though I can't say much more because my eyes are so tired because I am almost sleeping!

In my next post I hope to fill you all in about my Ministry trip i recently went on to California!

-Julia

Home again, jiggity jig!

This post has been a long time coming. Due to my schedule at IHOPU these past few weeks ( in California for a ministry trip) I have wanted to write many times but have not found the time to do so. I am finally home for thanksgiving break and it feels wonderful! Our drive up yesterday from Kansas City was fantastically fast!! (We only stopped once in 8hrs). One of my friends surprised his family yesterday telling them over these past months that he would not be able to come home for the thanksgiving break. Imagine their surprise when they found him outside their door :) It was a wonderful thing to see a mom who missed her son scream because she couldn't believe her son was actually before her eyes!

My family knew I was coming, so when my sister finally got home from work last night she dropped everything and ran to greet me. After getting hit in the face by her body we continuedto goof off as we talked with her

boyfriend in Seattle. It was a good time. Upon my arrival with friends to my home my mom made us handmade pizza and brownies! What a wonderful mom I have! It is so great to be home and I can't wait to let you all in on the goings on in my life these past few months!

Keep your eyes peeled...like a banana!! haha seriously though keep watching for more posts!