I HAD A DREAM…

This started out with an Advent Devotional created by Sue and Christine from the Facebook group "Scripture Art and Journaling" that I've been a part of for some time.  I'm sorry but this post is a little late being that Christmas was yesterday.

..No this is not a speech, a history lesson, or even a dream of my heart’s desire…this was an actual dream. I have had many, many visitations from Jesus in my sleep. I’ve teased that it’s one of the only times I’ll shut up.

Visions and Dreams looks to give some sound information about such dreams.

    Acts 2:17-18 “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy.”

Most of the time these dreams are just short and sweet. I wake up knowing something or know that it was He who talked to me. Many times, I’ve known that I was to pray. Numerous times I’ve known that I was to write. (Share about writing: Writing at the beach: an angel visit) My favorite time to write and/or work on my art with Him is in the wee hours of the morning when most of the rest of the world is asleep. Most of the time I don’t even care to eat or even get a cup of coffee when I first get up. It’s me and Him, no distractions. It’s precious to me. When I’ve gone very long without these dreams it saddens me. I feel so close to Him.

Yet this night was different. This night was the most vivid dream of my life. I tried to find a photo that would mostly depict what I still see in my mind’s eye and this is one that I found online yet His head and shoulders appear obscured. yet I had no doubt that it was Jesus. I felt like I didn’t come down for several days this visitation was so real. I had to share this with my pastor at the time or I’d burst and I’m still in awe. Every time I think of it my heart melts. And He told me that my message to share with the world (those who are presented to me) was

James 4:8a “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” 

 

It’s about intimacy. More explanation from my blog archives:

Drawing Near to God

And I so overwhelmingly know that I am to be sharing this more deeply at this time. He wants you who are reading to know this. You are special and He doesn’t want you to live life any longer without knowing that He wants you to draw near to Him. I, myself, have had an intimate relationship with Him for more 30 years.

A Long Time Coming TestimonyGiven for Celebrate Recovery 

 

He is not down the road or up in heaven somewhere, He lives in your heart once you have accepted Him.

After getting this CD for several days every time that I got in my car and started the CD player this song would play. No matter where I’d left it upon exiting my vehicle, this song would play when I got into it again. I knew He was speaking to me.

Kim Walker-Smith Lyrics

"The King Is Here"

The King is here, the King is here
You're alive inside of me
The King is here, the King is here
Love will never ever leave
[x2]

We worship and we praise
We lift Your holy name
We rejoice for our King is here
We're living to proclaim
You've opened Heaven's gates
We rejoice for our King is here

You are here, You are here
You come in power and majesty
God, You are here, You are here
Every heart has been set free

We worship and we praise
We lift Your holy name
We rejoice for our King is here
We're living to proclaim
You've opened Heaven's gates
We rejoice for our King is here
[x2]

The King is here, the King is here
Hallelujah, God You're here
The King is here, the King is here
Hallelujah, God You're here

We are captured by You
Surrender to You
We'll never be same
Cause You are here
We're alive to praise You,
Give our glory to You
We'll never be same
Cause You are here
[x2]

The King is here, the King is here
Hallelujah, God You're here
The King is here, the King is here
Hallelujah, God You're here

We are captured by You
Surrender to You
We'll never be same
Cause You are here
We're alive to praise You,
Give our glory to You
We'll never be same
Cause You are here
[x2]

The King is here, the King is here
Hallelujah, God You're here
The King is here, the King is here
Hallelujah, God You're here
[x2]

The King is here, the King is here
Hallelujah, God You're here

We worship and we praise
We lift Your holy name
We rejoice for our King is here
(Thank You Jesus)
We're living to proclaim
You've opened Heaven's gates
We rejoice for our King is here
(It's Jesus, it's Jesus)

(Thank You Jesus, thank You Jesus)

Video

Draw near to Him. Don’t turn Him away. He wants to be even closer than your closest of friends. Proverbs 18:24 “A man who has friends must himself be friendly, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

God bless you through my writing. If He has especially touched you in any way, please leave a comment below. Your comments are so very encouraging to me to help me to keep writing. Also, click on the “Uptweet” button on the above right and share! I pray you will keep coming back. I fully believe that my writing is by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so if I am writing, there is someone that needs to read it! Maybe it’s you? Also, please be sure to share any questions you might have with me and if you would like to keep them personal (just between you and me) please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at juliana.pace@gmail.com. If I don’t know how to answer you, I will may every attempt to refer you to someone for more information. Thanks and may God bless all your days!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE

I know I haven’t written in my blog in what seems like forever.  I was much too sick for a time to do much more than pray and work at staying alive.  I have been in the hospital 3 times this year and now I finally believe that things are looking up.  Even though I’m hooked up to an IV 24x7. I am coming back.  No more Life Vest which I wore for 3 months that was supposed to shock me if I was knocked out by cardiac arrest or arrhythmia.  How am I so calm about everything?  Because of Jesus!  What’s the worst that could happen?  If I died tomorrow I’d wake up with Jesus!  I have no doubt!  So, I will focus on the task at hand…THANKSGIVING!

A few days ago I was drawn to looking through my various Bibles and devotionals.  I saw this “Jesus Calling” devotional subtitled “Living a Life of Worship” by Sarah Young and thought to leaf through it. To my pleasant surprise that was a section entitled “A Life of Thankfulness” which fit right in!  I decided to journal this along with working on this chapter.  I also used it to try out different pens, my own cursive writing, some lettering, etc…

  

The first page was I journaled with different Gelatos for the background just using the rubbing in method with my fingers and then used a brush with a little water to paint around the dove along with various cut-outs and stickers from the ByTheWell4God - From Above Journaling Kit .

I am including several pages here that I hope you will also read along with seeing my journaling.  I know that lettering was a focus for this Holy Week but I am not really into trying to do someone else’s lettering but I am more inclined to figuring out my own style.  I actually have a sketch book especially for this and my favorite so far is not available right now.

This final page I journaled using a stencil with Gelatos and colored pencils for the leaves with colored pencils for the trunk.  The background was done with Gelatos written on a baby wipe and rubbed around in soft swirls.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

I want to acknowledge some amazing people who go above and beyond the call from when I was admitted at Largo Medical Center .  Dr. Worth, Dr. McCoy and the many other doctors, interns, felows, medical students who so readily attended to my care.  The amazing nursing staff in ICU, CSU, and the 2nd floor.  Techs: Molly, Vu, Alex, & Alexandria...and so many other people who I haven't named here.  You have made my 3 hospital visits this year much more tolerable!  

ay God bless you through my writing. If He has especially touched you in any way, please leave a comment below. Your comments are so very encouraging to me to help me to keep writing. Also, click on the “Up-tweet” button on the above right and share! I pray you will keep coming back. I fully believe that my writing is by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so if I am writing, there is someone that needs to read it! Maybe it’s you? Also, please be sure to share any questions you might have with me and if you would like to keep them personal (just between you and me) please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at juliana.pace@gmail.com. If I don’t know how to answer you, I will may every attempt to refer you to someone for more information. Thanks and may God bless all your days!

AND, GOD SHOWED ME…

I awoke, got up and came out to my dining table after few hours of sleep. Actually I wasn’t feeling very well BUT He certainly knows how to turn my mourning to Joy…

Isaiah 61:2 “…the oil of joy for mourning…”

AND I sat down to see this on my table:




For a whole lot of years I’ve questioned Him about why I became disabled. NO, I don’t believe He did it. If you want to know more about this, read the book of Job and you will find out that He doesn’t cause the trials of life, He lets them happen. AND, He has actually shown me numerous reasons why He “enabled” me BUT this is one of my most favorite and I think you will see why.

I wish I could actually paint the memory in my head and maybe someday I will do just that, but for now I need to do this with my words and a few photos. A few years ago He let me see a memory of my past. Just a memory? Or, a vision? I don’t really know. Some things from my past that I see in my “mind’s eye” are a ‘fly on the wall’ perspective. Like these people that talk about having an ‘out of body’ experience. It’s as though I’ve risen above myself and I’m looking down at this scene from my past.

Back in our house in Ohio, I used to love to put on old clothes and go out and sit in my garden, pull weeds, ponder His work in my life, etc… I called it my sanctuary. And this time, I saw myself looking up with rays of light shining down on me…Similarly to this photo that I took the first time I went out to write on the beach on Anna Maria Island:

I was talking to Him, not out loud but in my head, and telling Him that I just longed to be closer to Him and farther away from ‘the world’.

A year or so ago after quite a few years living without many flowers around me I guess I had a light bulb go off. 💡 I started looking for flowers to buy and put on my dining table. Not only do they remind me of God’s glorious, beautiful creation BUT they also remind me of why He let me come into my garden. Maybe it is similar to my own Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus went to pray?

Please forgive me for taking so long to post to my blog.  I think many of you who are looking here know that my life has been rather overwhelming since July when I was in the hospital for another heart attack.  I will share in a much better way as soon as I am inspired by the Holy Spirit to do so.  Thanks for hanging in there with me and your prayers are much appreciated!

May God bless you through my writing. If He has especially touched you in any way, please leave a comment below. Your comments are so very encouraging to me to help me to keep writing. Also, click on the “Up-tweet” button on the above right and share! I pray you will keep coming back. I fully believe that my writing is by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so if I am writing, there is someone that needs to read it! Maybe it’s you? Also, please be sure to share any questions you might have with me and if you would like to keep them personal (just between you and me) please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at juliana.pace@gmail.com. If I don’t know how to answer you, I will may every attempt to refer you to someone for more information. Thanks and may God bless all your days!

When Faith and Fear Collide

My life recently has felt overwhelming.  So many health issues to address, not only for me but also for my husband.  I'm certain that all of us go through similar feelings especially in their older years.  My faith is not lacking that Jesus is taking care of it all I'm just really feeling "buried beneath", which is a song that I love by the band Red.  The world can so easily bury us, if we let it.

And so I've kept seeking and in my mind was this song and another, 

They were playing on top of each other in my head.  They would not go away.  And as so many other times, when a song plays over and over for days that means that God is attempting to tell me something through the lyrics in that song.  Although sometimes I'm a bit dense about it and only reading the lyrics doesn't work.

After all of my appointments were over for the week I was able to relax.

On Saturday morning I got online to look up something for a collage in my new ESV Interleaved Journaling Bible.  It just came to mind to look for Jesus walking on the water.  Jesus Walking on Water  and the tears started to come.  The image that impressed me the most was:

http://rickberrystudio.com/Painting Credit

And by this time I was bawling.  I've continued working in my interleaved Bible yet I wasn't sure where this was going.  I knew I could use this image as long as it was just for me, for teaching, etc... and I will always give an artist credit.  I started working on this page today and immediately as soon as I started this Bible Journaling page, these words from a favorite song came to mind that the Lord has used in my life several times before "When Faith and Fear Collide".  

 And I finally got it.  Why does God take me on such a journey to figure something out like this?  Because I will remember it.  This is the first song by Skillet that ever meant anything much to me.

My Bible Journaling - It didn't take me long to figure out what Jesus wanted to reveal to me.  I was having fear about moving forward mostly due to the unknown...and I just needed to take His hand!

 I'm so excited to have my new and very economical ESV Interleaved Journaling Bible.  It gives me so much more space to spread out and do my own artwork, etc...

I made some of my own tabs with a punch or note paper and found various pre-made tabs in my journaling supplies.

I added a pretty colorful book cover that I already had.  The black strap is a headband (I purchased a pack of 3 for my head but they did not fit and to my surprise I've used them all, already to hold various things closed).  I made the page markers for a fourth time from instructions on a YouTube video:



Although I wrapped mine with Washi tape instead of scrapbook paper.

Time for the Bible Garden to start!

ay God bless you through my writing. If He has especially touched you in any way, please leave a comment below. Your comments are so very encouraging to me to help me to keep writing. Also, click on the “Up-tweet” button on the above right and share! I pray you will keep coming back. I fully believe that my writing is by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so if I am writing, there is someone that needs to read it! Maybe it’s you? Also, please be sure to share any questions you might have with me and if you would like to keep them personal (just between you and me) please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at juliana.pace@gmail.com. If I don’t know how to answer you, I will may every attempt to refer you to someone for more information. Thanks and may God bless all your days!

He Told Me to Pray - Inspiration

And, here I am up writing again.  Just love the peace in the early morning hours.  Sun not up yet and it appears that no one else is awake in the building.  The last couple of days have been too busy to get this all down both with Bible Journaling and with my husband since it was the weekend.  I find myself sharing more and more about God's strength through so many health issues.  I guess maybe that is why they are happening.  He did show me several years back that a major reason why so much happens in my life is because I will run to Him.  I know where to go.  Where someone else doesn’t.  Others who don’t know Him have no clue who to run to.  We hear many people who know Him contemplating why many who don’t, don’t have as many problems.  Yet life is not about all of these things.  Life is meant to Glorify God and prepare us for a heavenly eternity with Him, not to have an awesome play time on earth!  Yet, prayer is where it’s at.  A relationship with Jesus is where it’s at!  And He is so much better than anything on this earth!

  

Encaustic Mixed Media Art - "My Momma's Home with digital artwork.

 I am also still working on the second part of the Bible Journaling that goes along with this blog post.  I am doing more of my own art now, or adding to their art also.  I just keep seeing it in my mind’s eye and I have this “fearlessness” bubbling up within me.  I have to do more.  It is what is fulfilling me right now.  Yet prior to Saturday morning the inspiration in my heart was at a rare low and I felt numb and unsettled.

To share more of what God has been showing me about my physical issues right now.  (By the way, this morning my hands are feeling relatively good so that I am able to type, which is the way my life seems to go.) When my limitations keep me from something it is usually because I am not supposed to do it.  I had already made a decision to not drive up to an outlet mall on Saturday morning and so very thankful that I did.  I awoke in the most pain that I think I have ever had when not in bed with a morphine pump.    After only three hours of sleep and my hands were curled half way into a fist.  I could barely straighten them or do much more than to sit in my dining room chair and push buttons with my thumb and/or holler to our Echo, “Alexa play Christian Rock Music”.  This song was playing in my mind,  Oh My Soul by Casting Crowns again.  It is the song that played on our Echo the night of that first day when my hands started to fail on my iPad keyboard and I truly had a meltdown.  Please see past posts relating to this.  Since I have purchased it and listened to it many times.  The echo played it again.

  

So profound and I don’t think that if God were audibly speaking to me that it would be any more recognizeable to me as Him.  Not long after I ran into this Bible Journaling video on 1 Samuel 1:15 and He continued to speak and I have been pouring my heart out to Him since and awesomely inspired to my Bible Journaling.

1 Samuel 1:15 Bible Journaling video Inspiration  Done by Monica on her channel Because Jesus Bible Journaling which I love and keep watching previous videos.

And I have done some Bible Journaling of my own.

My Holman NKJV Single Column Journaling Bible.

My Inspire Praise Journaling Bible.

I saw both of these in my mind's eye.  This is how I receive my art inspiration most of the time. The fingernails are done like my own.  Of course not great yet but practice helps.  What was really awesome is when I awoke from a dream where I saw an art piece and ran out to my desk to write it down so I wouldn't forget.  My step-son was spending the night at the time.  He awoke to tell me exactly what I saw before I wrote it down.  Just too cool!

ay God bless you through my writing. If He has especially touched you in any way, please leave a comment below. Your comments are so very encouraging to me to help me to keep writing. Also, click on the “Up-tweet” button on the above right and share! I pray you will keep coming back. I fully believe that my writing is by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so if I am writing, there is someone that needs to read it! Maybe it’s you? Also, please be sure to share any questions you might have with me and if you would like to keep them personal (just between you and me) please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at juliana.pace@gmail.com. If I don’t know how to answer you, I will may every attempt to refer you to someone for more information. Thanks and may God bless all your days!

I'm Inspired - God's Peace

I’m inspired!  God is so good!  I’m not awake even 5 minutes before He is touching my heart!  I’m sharing this today because I need to let you all know how He makes a way when I woke up not feeling well.  It was 5:30 or so the first time I woke up with an awful stomach ache.  I just tried to sleep some more knowing that I was getting up at 7:30.

John 14:27  " Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." is my favorite scripture.  It talks about peace in the midst.  He doesn’t promise everything to be perfect and a bed of roses but He does say that He will give us peace and be with us through it all.  My life is such a perfect example of this.  From prison to sickness, to more sickness and even more sickness, and spending much, much time alone with only Him to keep me company. 

When I finally got up today I had a Bible Journaling page lying in my dining room table morning spot to finish that evoked so many memories.

And I shared that it evoked many memories in my Bible Journaling group and then I couldn’t hold back.  And I shared:

“Oh, I can’t help it...I’m a story teller I guess.  Not only did it make me think of growing up on a bike but also the last place we lived was called Christian Retreat in Bradenton.  I had a Purple trike (color of page) and I would ride in the early mornings in this circle by all these duplexes.  You can feel the presence of God in this place when you turn from the main road.  I would pray for the people as I rode past each home with all the gorgeous flowers and the sound of peacocks...I think of all the amazing memories from living in this awe-inspiring place!  I could go on and on...God is awesome!  It was like the $$ just fell from the sky to move there, too.  Totally God!  I may have to hang this in our computer room.”

Not long after all of this I was drawn to the flowers on our dining table.  I have been getting them several times a month for more than a year now and they are worth so much more to me than what I pay for them.  I delight in them.  In Ohio we had a ½ acre of gardens, a water garden, and I had 120 house plants.  (No exaggeration.)  But since I have been in Florida there has been a decline in my ability to care for plants and I have truly missed the flowers the most.  I look at them on and off all day long.  They inspire me.  They touch my heart.  They evoke memories, They are God’s glorious creation.  I don’t even know how to arrange them well but I decided that it really doesn’t matter if I just bask in them anyway!  They are just an amazing gift to my day, my life!  And I am writing this with my stomach still hurting but emotionally and spiritually I am free, complete, at peace, and full of love and sunshine!

I used to not like the color yellow until we moved to our Ohio house.  We had a screened back porch with skylights and yellow walls where the sun shined, the birds sang, and the squirrels played.  I collected metal sun plaques for the wall.  We moved before I could do all of the decorating that I wanted to there.

 Since then, yellow has brought the idea of light to me and I love using it that way in my art and Bible journaling, too.

Bible Journaling page with yellow as light.

When we went for flowers at Trader Joe’s in St. Petersburg on Saturday this was tour first truly sunshiny day in a couple of weeks being the rainy season in Florida.  The first flowers I noticed were the Gerber Daisies and  I snatched up a cluster of them, then the spray roses (a favorite of mine).  We are so blessed to have such beautiful flowers available to us as such a good price.  And then I had to add the purple, of course.  Whoever purchases the flowers for Trader Joe’s knows what they are doing.  I’d rather go there than any place else in the area.  Oh, I’ve gotten bouquets in other places that were lovely occasionally but Trader Joe’s is the most consistent and inexpensive.

Can you see God’s handiwork here?

 

May God bless you through my writing. If He has especially touched you in any way, please leave a comment below. Your comments are so very encouraging to me to help me to keep writing. Also, click on the “Up-tweet” button on the above right and share! I pray you will keep coming back. I fully believe that my writing is by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so if I am writing, there is someone that needs to read it! Maybe it’s you? Also, please be sure to share any questions you might have with me and if you would like to keep them personal (just between you and me) please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at juliana.pace@gmail.com. If I don’t know how to answer you, I will may every attempt to refer you to someone for more information. Thanks and may God bless all your days!

OH MY SOUL

Here it is Sunday morning and my husband woke me up with breakfast.  So very sweet of him but I stayed up for a couple of hours after he went to bed.   I groggily “smiled” and got up.  (God always has a reason for my needing to get up early.  He has proved it to me again and again.  Even though so out of it in my own mind, I seem to tune into Him much more easily at this time of day.  I have written most of these blog posts in the wee hours of the morning.)

I did not need my husband to open the blinds to know that it was raining outside, I could hear it.  It’s been raining all week almost every day all day and now we are expecting a tropical storm today.  Just truly typical tropical weather for this time of year, but it can get depressing.  I have a friend who it has been affecting extraordinarily so and when we came home from the grocery last night it struck me to send an uplifting song to her so I looked one up and was sharing it with my husband this morning:

As I was looking for it, another song came to mind that helped me in my last dip of depression… this depression spell was a doozy!  It was, though, as if God, Himself was speaking to me. 

That day was one of my worst in some time.  My hands are having major problems right now.  I’d had trigger finger for some time in my right hand, which is debilitating to say the least but I’d had a stroke when I was 40 (now 57) with some effects to my left hand but “FAITH” kept me going like it was nearly normal.  This day I was “seeing” my left hand shaking terribly when I was typing and I had trouble hitting some of the keys.  I’ve been typing for 45+ years and playing piano for even longer. (The stroke slowed me down when I typed 120 words per minute as a Radiological Transcriptionist).  OH, WAS I EVER SHAKEN!  I was mad!  I called my hand doctor for an appointment but the office lady explained over and over to me how my family doctor had to know about my left hand issues before I made the appointment and I went off.  I had a “melt down”.  I even hung up on the lady, which is totally unlike me today yet it was how I would’ve reacted just after the stroke.  I was in tears.  I was more mad than I’d been in I don’t know how long.  BUT I cried out for prayer.  I go to God!  As much of my artwork depicts, “I RUN TO HIM”:

I was still mad.  I sought out doing housework while listening to worship music to get my mind off of it but this did not help, it used my hands!  BUT, “Oh My Soul” started to play and I heard “One more day, He will make a way.” And it caught my attention so I listened more. 

Oh My Soul

Casting Crowns

Oh, my soul
Oh, how you worry
Oh, how you're weary, from fearing you lost control
This was the one thing, you didn't see coming
And no one would blame you, though
If you cried in private
If you tried to hide it away, so no one knows
No one will see, if you stop believing

Oh, my soul
You are not alone
There's a place where fear has to face the God you know
One more day, He will make a way
Let Him show you how, you can lay this down
'Cause you're not alone

Here and now
You can be honest
I won't try to promise that someday it all works out
'Cause this is the valley
And even now, He is breathing on your dry bones
And there will be dancing
There will be beauty where beauty was ash and stone
This much I know

Oh, my soul
You are not alone
There's a place where fear has to face the God you know
One more day, He will make a way
Let Him show you how, you can lay this down

I'm not strong enough, I can't take anymore
(You can lay it down, you can lay it down)
And my shipwrecked faith will never get me to shore
(You can lay it down, you can lay it down)
Can He find me here
Can He keep me from going under

Oh, my soul
You're not alone
There's a place where fear has to face the God you know
One more day, He will make a way
Let Him show you how, you can lay this down
'Cause you're not alone
Oh, my soul, you're not alone

Songwriters: JOHN MARK HALL, BERNIE HERMS

My heart melted once again.  He knows me so well.  Music speaks to me.  He speaks to me so often through music.  And here it is a good 2 months later and it is in His hands still!

May God bless you through my writing. If He has especially touched you in any way, please leave a comment below. Your comments are so very encouraging to me to help me to keep writing. Also, click on the “Uptweet” button on the above right and share! I pray you will keep coming back. I fully believe that my writing is by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so if I am writing, there is someone that needs to read it! Maybe it’s you? Also, please be sure to share any questions you might have with me and if you would like to keep them personal (just between you and me) please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at juliana.pace@gmail.com. If I don’t know how to answer you, I will may every attempt to refer you to someone for more information. Thanks and may God bless all your days! 

Intercession + My Weakness

I have been praying for years.  My mother taught me how to pray when I had nightmares as a child of just 3 or 4 years old.  Although I did feel somewhat adequate in my own prayer life where no one else heard me but God, I still feel quite inadequate praying in front of others.  In an emergency if someone asked me to pray, I would drop all of my fears and pray.  Yet by my early 50’s I still felt quite skiddish about praying out loud around anyone else.

While living in Palmetto, FL, a BFF was living at Christian Retreat (Christian Retreat.org) and I attended some conferences there at the Family Church.    

At one Billy Burke conference (billy Burke.org) a lady asked for prayers for herself as an intercessor.   Billy told others who thought they were intercessors to claim the prayer that he was about to say for themselves.  I had not yet seen myself as such but prayed, asking the Lord if I should claim this prayer and I believe he told me to claim it.  All of us who claimed this prayer for ourselves outstretched our arms towards him.  As I held my arm out, it was though I could even see a lightning bolt come from Billy, up through my outstretched arm to me and I hit the floor.  “Obedience”.  This has happened to me more than once when I followed what I thought the Lord was telling me to do.  Powerful prayer and I was still on “cloud 9” regarding it when I got home.  I can still “see myself” standing in front of the mirror talking to God.  I was telling Him how weak I felt regarding prayer and He said to me “that’s when I am strong.”  

*2 Corinthians 12:10 “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 

May God bless you through my writing. If He has especially touched you in any way, please leave a comment below. Your comments are so very encouraging to me to help me to keep writing. Also, click on the “Uptweet” button on the above right and share! I pray you will keep coming back. I fully believe that my writing is by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so if I am writing, there is someone that needs to read it! Maybe it’s you? Also, please be sure to share any questions you might have with me and if you would like to keep them personal (just between you and me) please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at juliana.pace@gmail.com. If I don’t know how to answer you, I will may every attempt to refer you to someone for more information. Thanks and may God bless all your days! 

Don’t Put it Past Him

I’ve wanted to share about this for some time but never think about it when I can.  This is how I learned to never put anything past God.  In other words, don’t ever say that He won’t do something.  In early 1989, when I was in prison so not long since I’d rededicated my life to the Lord -  I was sitting and talking with a friend and told her that I knew that He’d never use me to speak in front of people because I wasn’t a public speaker.  Right?  I know it wasn’t 2 months!  

I still remember that Tuesday night Bible study that some ladies put on from the outside.  It was one of my favorites and I attended for months.  We’d sing a bunch of more familiar hymns then one of the ladies would give a lesson yet never was anyone from the inside asked to speak until I said that God wouldn’t have me do it.  I was asked to give my testimony with only a few days to prepare.  I wanted this to be totally Him anyway so it did not require much.  On the night of my speaking I went into the little half bath that was adjacent to our Bible study room and got on my knees.  I asked Him to speak through me. I remember feeling very nervous and like I rattled on but it was well received.  After the meeting we went back to our rooms to be counted.  I rarely came out of my room after this but my bestie at the time asked me to come out.  We sat in the “day room” and shared.  As she read these scriptures, telling me that I had spoken on all of it as she listened at the Bible study that night, I bawled.  Isaiah is 61:1-3:

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
3 To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

I was in awe.  I went on to being interviewed on the telephone on TV at a local to home Christian TV station.  I was on TV just a week after I was released.  At that time I gave several testimonies to youth groups and was on TV another couple of times.  If you check out the archives, I've also given my testimony twice at Celebrate Recovery in more recent years.  Only God knows what is next.

Recently I have been attending an online Bible Journaling conference called “Flourish: where faith and creativity meet”.  It consists of several online videos every other day.  On one of the days a lady spoke much about the sketching process and she walked us through a project of a faceless self-portrait (any woman) with words that we felt gave us an identity.  I was not even going to do it at first but as I thought about it, these scriptures came to mind.  So, I did a quick draw even though my hands are the worst right now at drawing and even signing my own name.  Typing works a bit better since I don’t have to bend my fingers much.  It’s easier to just share the finished product.

 I found that I also loved working with my new watercolors and contemplated doing more.  I have also still had the idea of doing more hand lettering going through my mind.  I believe God showed me that this newest self-portrait was wrong.  I was supposed to letter these entire 3 verses with a self-portrait.  And so I began.  I was also inspired to label the self-portrait.  I need to remember that lines are a good idea.  But not bad for a first attempt.

May God bless you through my writing. If He has especially touched you in any way, please leave a comment below. Your comments are so very encouraging to me to help me to keep writing. Also, click on the “Uptweet” button on the above right and share! I pray you will keep coming back. I fully believe that my writing is by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so if I am writing, there is someone that needs to read it! Maybe it’s you? Also, please be sure to share any questions you might have with me and if you would like to keep them personal (just between you and me) please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at juliana.pace@gmail.com. If I don’t know how to answer you, I will may every attempt to refer you to someone for more information. Thanks and may God bless all your days!