interpretive dances and such...

it's 12:43 a.m. and i can't sleep... just an f.y.i. :)

in church last sunday, my dad preached an awesome message titled "next." (you can download it HERE) amazing to me how i get excited over that one word. next. if you are in a season anything like mine, next offers hope, interest and relief! next holds within it the potential for change...

dad made this statement "God will only have me stay in one place because of my doings or my not doings." a powerful statement. to further quote him, he has also said many times in the past "application is the foundation of fruitfulness."

all of this came together for me a couple of days ago - i've been doing a study of the book of james and so much of what i've been dwelling on in that book ties it all together...

"you can't pick and choose in these things, specializing in keeping one or two things in God's law and ignoring others...do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? do i hear you professing to believe in the One and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? that's just great. demons do that, but what good does it do them?". - james 2 (the message)

whether i move to the next level, the next season, the next opportunity, the next whatever is based on my doings. or not doings. shouting "AMEN!" when dad preaches about the "next," singing israel houghton's "moving forward" or "another level" with all my vibrato, journaling scriptures about "see, I am doing a new thing"....these are all well and good - but will they usher me into the next phase? on their own, i'm thinking probably not.

what am i doing? merely acknowledging the need, desire and determination for change will not bring change. a good starting place, but that has to develop into doing. making a daily schedule for myself detailing the particulars of a new course of action to bring me into the next level of whatever is great...but until i JUST DO IT, i'll have only scheduled potential, not reality.

i believe in the principle of tithing - i acknowledge it's truth.
but am i tithing?
i believe in the cause of the Kingdom, winning souls and making disciples.
but am i actually telling people about Jesus?
i believe in good health and staying fit.
but am i still drinking four cokes a day and eating six chapati's for dinner?
i believe in showing the world the love of Christ.
but am i being kind to my family, my co-workers, the waitress who's too slow?
i believe in the power of prayer.
but am i praying?
i believe in the power of God's Word.
but am i reading it? studying it? obeying it?

this is what God spoke to my heart two days ago...
"rebekah, I cannot bless what you believe...
I can only bless what you do."

if i am given seed that is GUARANTEED to be good quality and sure to produce good fruit and i shout about it, write down rhema's in my journal about the best farming techniques, read the accounts of great farmers who have gone before me, write an album full of songs about how grateful i am for the seed, how excited and willing i am to go into the field and sow it, choreograph an interpretive dance using ribbons and lots of ballet jumps and minister it in church, write the most eloquent and moving spoken word and make a youtube video of it that goes viral, declare every day the power that it has, command abundance to come forth out of it, fast and pray for the overflow of harvest from it, host a workshop and then a conference about it, start a ministry called "guaranteed seed heavenly harvest ministries" and tell my friends that they should get some of this seed too.....will any of that bring fruit?????? as wonderful as my motives, excitement, passion, faith, expectation and demonstrations of belief may be, will any of that turn into fruit????

unless i till the soil, plant the seed, water the ground, uproot the weeds...unless i do that, i would have only built monuments of make-believe, turned into a hero of hypocrisy and gathered followers of fantasy.

the scripture says that "knowledge puffs up...".
we often have a false sense of security because we KNOW.
we say, we teach, we talk, we shout hallelujah...
but are we doing what we know to do?

i don't know about you, but i'm ready for the next,
i'm hungry for the harvest,
and i'll do what i gotta do.