Grace's Notes

The war continues... but the battle belongs to the Lord!

2007-09-03T22:40:00.000-07:00

"The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds."
~ 2 Corinthians 10:4

I have a precious testimony and sharing of scriptures from a recent encounter, and it was placed right into my hands by the Lord at a time when I most needed peace and deliverance from darkness:

One early morning, in anguish I awoke. I was wide awake and felt as if I was wired; and yet, I felt exhaustion and fatigue beyond words could describe. I knew there and then that darkness was over me. The whole house was quiet. I was the only one awake. I knelt down before the Lord and waited on Him. Jesus was right and ready, and He spoke! I heard the Holy Spirit whispering prayers into me, "Do not let me be put to shame..." I thought to myself at the time, "...this sounds like a Psalm..."

I picked up my Bible and turned immediately to Psalm 25, as if I knew exactly where it came from. There I saw the exact words, and I started reciting the Psalm. As I completed reading, I experienced the amazement of God's unconditional love. There was such power in God's words. He literally put these words into my mouth because He knew I was too weak and muddled to confess to Him. All at once, His peace overwhelmed me, and my soul was rested. I was even able to go back to sleep for a little while longer afterwards. God is merciful and forever forgiving. He is all knowing and almighty indeed.

Psalm 25

"To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul;

in you I trust, O my God.

Do not let me be put to shame,

nor let my enemies triumph over me.

No one whose hope is in you

will ever be put to shame,

but they will be put to shame

who are treacherous without excuse.

Show me your ways, O Lord,

teach me your paths;

guide me in your truth and teach me,

for you are God my Savior,

and my hope is in you all day long.

Remember, O Lord, your great mercy and love,

for they are from of old.

Remember not the sins of my youth

and my rebellious ways;

according to your love remember me,

for you are good, O Lord.

Good and upright is the Lord;

therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.

He guides the humble in what is right

and teaches them his way.

All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful

for those who keep the demands of his covenant.

For the sake of your name, O Lord,

forgive my iniquity, though it is great.

Who, then, is the man that fears the Lord?

He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.

He will spend his days in prosperity,

and his descendants will inherit the land.

The Lord confides in those who fear him;

he makes his covenant known to them.

My eyes are ever on the Lord,

for only he will release my feet from the snare.

Turn to me and be gracious to me,

for I am lonely and afflicted.

The troubles of my heart have multiplied;

free me from my anguish.

Look upon my affliction and my distress

and take away all my sins.

See how my enemies have increased

and how fiercely they hate me!

Guard my life and rescue me;

let me not be put to shame,

for I take refuge in you.

May integrity and uprightness protect me,

because my hope is in you.

Redeem Israel, O God,

from all their troubles!"

I have continuously experienced God's unfailing love and mercies in delivering me out of the hands of the devil. My heart is full of praises for Him, and my faith and courage have considerably increased due to His grace. As I stand up to the evil attacks that had attempted to bury me alive, a core group of intercessory prayer warriors have bravely gathered to cover me. Out of this amazing grace from the Lord, I regained strength to climb up from the bottom of the pit, and my peace was completely restored within three days.

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” ~ John 2:19

There were three important points that I realized:

Firstly, God's almighty promise withstand the test of time and any situations, Hallelujah! He is not only faithful to His people, His protection and refuge is enough to get us through any life challenges and hardships.

Secondly, the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. For it is with God's word that we fight! His word is like a sword that pierces through any evil. Amen!

Thirdly, "There is tremendous power in praying together!!" I have always upheld this truth, but it really is phenomenal when one is on the receiving end of these intercessory prayers. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the life. It is only through Him that we may come before our Heavenly Father.

Remember these memory verses as they may become handy to you during your daily battles:

Exodus 15:13
“In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling."

Psalm 34:19-20
"A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken."

Mark 16:17-18
"And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."

1 John 4
"No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."

"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother."

Lean on God; He is our strength and shield.

May peace and healing be with you all, always. Amen.

What is Life Coaching?

2007-03-20T22:13:00.000-07:00

As a life coach, I often get asked many questions about my work. The main reason being that this profession is still new to many people, and very often they cannot quite work out why one would need a coach in their life.

Many coaches have their one-minute elevator speech always ready at hand, stating something to do with empowerment, support, accountability, and actions. That still may not have answered the question of what coaching is all about.

And so, while I initiate this blog space, I decided to share one of the emails that I wrote to my own coach some time ago which I thought really demonstrated what coaching would do for a person. It is a journey into a person's mind who saw light and perspectives in her issues after some reflections on her coaching session. It is an enlightening and edifying experience. Enjoy!

Tuesday, October 24, 2006 11:39:18 PM
Subject: Permission to grieve

Hi Coach,

Thanks for the chat yesterday. After putting the phone down, I felt my brain ticking away working out this "permission" thing in my head. In the evening, my husband and I had a good chat for about an hour or so, and it was helpful for both of us.

I was pretty tired by the time I've put the kids to sleep and had a shower, and so I just resigned to reading the Bible in bed, instead of writing to you.

As I read the scriptures last night, and it was the book of Job, I found myself following closely Job's words and thoughts. Those were my words, I thought. I realized, I had deep grief.

Grieving is a process, and it's necessary towards healing. For the number of times I have counseled and coached people who were grieving, I realized that there was very little I could do for them except to stay with them for as long as they needed to live out those feelings and emotions. My own experiences of grief manifested in different ways following each and every incident. But every time, I knew I was grieving. This time, it's been completely new to me. I had grief and yet I didn't realize until I found myself longing and yearning to those words of Job. It was then when I realized what I really needed...

I needed permission - not to move on - but to stop and live out the pain and sorrow that had punched a hole in my heart. I need to let the bruised blood of the wound ooze out, before it'll ever get a chance to get better.

It hasn't been easy in this last 6 to 8 months. Many things have happened too quickly that I didn't have time to stop, think and evaluate. Everyday I was going through the motion. I didn't really have the space to ask myself what I wanted from the very busy life I had. And yet, I felt as if I didn't have anything that I really wanted from life except to carry on with what I was doing everyday.

Obviously God thought differently. He wanted me to stop, think, and take account. That's why He has sent me on this journey to grieve.

I was reading today's "Streams In the Desert" and it said,

"“I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument.” (Isaiah 41:15.)

Bar of steel worth five dollars, when wrought into horseshoes, is worth ten dollars. If made into needles, it is worth three hundred and fifty dollars; if into penknife blades, it is worth thirty-two thousand dollars; if into springs for watches it is worth two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. What a drilling the poor bar must undergo to be worth this! But the more it is manipulated, the more it is hammered, and passed through the fire, and beaten and pounded and polished, the greater the value.

May this parable help us to be silent, still, and longsuffering. Those who suffer most are capable of yielding most; and it is through pain that God is getting the most out of us, for His glory and the blessing of others."

I was reminded of a vision that the Lord gave me a while ago when I was in deep prayers and meditation for a client, and the Lord had shown me that this client was a ruby on the sword, which was God’s word; and her husband was a sapphire on a white ribbon, which was to stop violence against women; and there was an emerald on a Claddagh ring which signified a friend who would be sent along to help – all the visions were very symbolic. In that prayer, I asked the Lord with curiosity, “If this client was ruby, and her husband was sapphire… then Lord, how do you see ‘me’”?

With all innocence, I really was ready to see myself as some kind of a gem. But to my complete surprise, the Lord showed me the walls of Zion. Long and grand as they stood, the Lord then gave me a close-up shot. I saw then there were pointed cast iron rods all the way along the top of these walls. Then the Lord gave me another close-up shot. This time, the Lord honed in on one of the iron rods, and as I looked, I saw that it was embossed with gold. And immediately following that instance, the Lord zoomed out and let me see that there were hundreds, thousands, millions of these embossed iron rods all standing along the walls of Zion.

These visions appeared in a matter of seconds, but the dawning moment seemed forever, eternal. For it was the first time I realized how the Lord saw me. I realized that I was like many others, faithfully standing firm at the top of the walls of God's kingdom. Each and every single one of those rods was the same; there were not one that was any different to the rest of them. But each and every single one was as important as all the rest of them.

It was a moment of great revelation, but also a moment of deep humbleness.

I am a cast iron rod, on the walls of Zion. I'm sure you're one, too. Isn't that amazing? And in order to stay strong as a cast iron rod, we have to endure high heat and tampering.

Just like what was said in Jeremiah 1:18-19:

"For see, today I have made you immune to their attacks. You are strong like a fortified city that cannot be captured, like an iron pillar or a bronze wall. None of the kings, officials, priests, or people of Judah will be able to stand against you. They will try, but they will fail. For I am with you, and I will take care of you. I, the Lord, have spoken!"

Reading today's "Streams in the Desert" did not inspire and touch me as much as it should have, as I have a hole in my heart. But it reminded me why I am in this grieving process. It gave me a purpose to grieve, and it sets the scene in preparing me for recovery later on.

I now realize that it is not necessarily a physical space, or a mental space, but a spiritual space that I need to set aside for myself to rest and take account. I need to relive some moments that had gone on too quickly, and reconsider how I should re-position them in my mind.

These last 2 days, taking my younger daughter to preschool was completely therapeutic for me. I got to spend time with someone who is significant and important in my life. I feel comforted to reconnect with my baby. I think God is working wonders even when I don't feel I have the strength to do what I am doing. I know that even when a part of me seems to be lost or missing at the moment, I am really together as one. I just don't feel it, that's all, due to the numbness of grief.

But I do know that only one thing can happen after this period of spiritual repose. I know that when I recover and rebound, I will have grown muscles, limbs and wings that I never knew I could have.

God is merciful and loving. I shall trust and lean on Him.

And Coach, thank you for being there to realize this with me. It means a great deal.

Grace
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