Category: Life Lessons

…I plead with you to walk holy, in a way that is suitable to your high rank, given to you in your divine calling. With tender humility and quiet patience, always demonstrate gentleness and generous love toward one another, especially toward those who may try your patience…. (1-2)

And He has generously given each one of us supernatural grace, according to the size of the gift of Christ…(7)

And He has appointed some with grace to be apostles,  and some with grace to be prophets, and some with grace to be evangelists, and some with grace to be pastors, and some with grace to be teachers. 

And their calling is to nurture and prepare all the holy believers to do their own works of ministry, and as they do this they will enlarge and build up the body of Christ. (11-12)

All our direction and ministries will flow from Christ and lead us deeper into Him…(15). 

See Ephesians 4

God has recently been prompting me to delve deeper into my understanding of the words grace and anointing. As a result, I’m more sensitive to noticing these two words when I encounter them in scripture. 

Today as I read the Bible, these above verses really struck me as passages to stop and reread as though the words were addressing me personally. 

When I contemplated verse 7, and he has generously given each of us supernatural grace…I was compelled to read those words again replacing the word “grace” with unmerited favor and “supernatural” with the power of God or divine power. 

Through that practice, God opened my understanding to realize more clearly and concretely that God has anointed me, Jody, with His divine power and favor to fulfill my calling. 

What am I called to do? What are my gifts? 

God has called me to share through video and writing what He shows me and teaches me. God has also called me to be a counselor and one who helps others find direction, clarity, and courage to discover their calling or move forward in their calling. And, most importantly, God has called me to partner with Him to share a message of hope and build an army of believers through the vehicle of this business. In fact, to do all I’ve mentioned here through this business vehicle. It’s what I was created to do, but not only that. Building this business is what I have been anointed (supernaturally empowered) to do, called to do, and given grace (unmerited favor) to do. 

When I read this passage of scripture I pictured myself out in the marketplace, obediently making myself available while God’s angels set up divine appointments for me to walk into. I literally saw favor like a sticky substance (like honey) on me, drawing people to me and God imparting the right words to say at just the right time. 

Wow! How this changes how I see my calling and how to carry it out! 

God has a mission to fulfill and He has commissioned me to fulfill it. I already have every single thing I need to do so. I am equipped with “ every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm” (See Ephesians 1:3) through my union with Jesus. There is nothing more I need, just simply to believe these things are true (faith) and receive this Word and walk in it with confident expectancy in Him. 

God is out there working on my and Tony’s behalf, bringing the people to us to fulfill what He has called us to do. God has orchestrated it all. He knows exactly how our organization will come together. We just need to be available and obedient. The only way can mess it up is not go! God will work out every detail. My part in my calling is actually rather small. My part is simply moving forward and taking action with expectancy, knowing that at just the right time, God will connect me with just the right person. I’ll even know what to say! It’s HIS plan for my life, not my plan…and He is going to see it through. 

Therefore, I simply need to do my part which is make myself available and practice and hone my craft or skill. 

God has blessed me with gifts of exhortation, hospitality, preaching, and prophecy to accomplish the callings of leadership and mentorship. He’s always given me the right words to share with others as encouragement or direction. I’ve never experienced an encounter where God didn’t show me a picture of how He is working in someone else’s life or words they needed to hear. Even before I knew Him. 

Simply stated, as I do my part, God WILL do His part which is the anointing and grace part that I saw in my spirit when I read these verses. I have a calling on my life to “nurture and prepare all the holy believers to do their own works of ministry…” (see verse 12). Therefore, I have the divine power, favor, help, and anointing of God to accomplish this, to fulfill my calling! 

So I ask you, what has God called you to do? What is the calling of God in your life? What are your gifts? What is your part and what is God’s part? What are you focusing on, worrying about, and trying to force that is actually God’s part? What happens if you make a shift to let Him work while you focus on honing your craft and practicing your skills? The pressure is off! Now go have fun and enjoy and embrace the adventure of the journey! 

2020. It’s been a funny year. A record breaking year on every front.

Sounds a little bit like war, right?

I’m getting ahead of myself. This topic is autumn!

In fact, I just re-positioned my chair to take in the view of the last falling leaves of the season, the magnificent yellow leaves of the maple trees which guard my home from intense sunny days. It’s November 11, 2020, and it’s 72 degrees with 100% humidity here in central PA…unusual temperatures in an unprecedented year.

I’ve been sitting here pondering the application of my latest reading, As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen. Today’s topic is “Serenity”.

Surely, you’ve read the famous, Serenity Prayer, or at least this portion of it:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and the Wisdom to know the difference.

I was struck as I read this today how closely Wisdom and serenity are tied together. It is difficult to have peace without the wisdom to attain that condition of the heart and mind. It is also impossible to grow in wisdom without increasing in peace and soundness of heart and mind. See? Peace and Wisdom are so closely united.

As I read that passage I remembered an experience from my walk this morning.

There I was, walking through the hilly wooded trails of the park taking in the last of the bright colored trees when I felt a nudge to sidetrack through a tiny little patch of woods in the middle of the field, diverting me away from my planned route which would mark my three mile goal!

This side-trail opened suddenly into a brightly lit corridor of yellow leaves. Yellow everywhere: a thick yellow carpet of leaves underfoot, a yellow canopy stretching from overhead all the way to the ground, and loosed yellow leaves cascading through the air all around. The air was still and quiet except for the sound of the falling leaves. As I breathed in the sight, smell, and sound of that beautiful moment, waves of peace flooded my heart and mind. For an instant, every pressing or anxious thought was drowned by the timeless beauty of creation and the remembrance of a Creator whose love for me surpasses every trouble and circumstance.

The lesson of that moment was simply, Jody, what do you choose to look at? Which thoughts do you allow to fill the recesses of your mind? Where does your help come from? And what will worrying add to your life, anyway? The lesson is that peace has been given as a gift but to hold onto peace in the midst of everyday life is a choice. This choice is under girded by seeking daily doses of wisdom or promises in His Word.

Without consistently chewing on wisdom from above, there are no peace-filled, stable thoughts to rest upon when storms begin to brew or things don’t go as planned. In the place of Truth, we turn to feelings and opinions. We look for validation and information from others or even the news. The cliff notes forgery of the Real Deal. Peace comes from wisdom. Wisdom comes from knowledge of the Truth. A steady diet of the Truth keeps us digging deeper, “beneath the waves, beyond the tempests, in the Eternal Calm”.

My search for the last bright colors of Autumn 2020 led me on a path into the arms of my Father, the Creator of all, where He lovingly reminded me to simply say to the tempest, “Peace. Be still.”