full – KARLA LEES

Getting to know yourself is the key to finding out what revs your motor.

When a car is finely tuned with care by its mechanic, and is running on the right fuel, the ride is sweet.

Not taking care of your engine will cause damage to your car, not to mention the wrong fuel can cause it not to start, majorly mucking things up.

To find your sweet spot, you need to know your passions. How God has hardwired you.

Do you love to create?

Are you a teacher?

Can’t stop singing?

Love to organize?

Live to scribble?

Delight in helping?

Pray for healings?

Have a deep unshakeable faith?

Unswerving hope?

Interpret words?

Speak truth & encouragement?

These are just a few clues that can lead you to discover why you are here. God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful:
wise counsel
clear understanding
simple trust
healing the sick
miraculous acts
proclamation
distinguishing between spirits
tongues
interpretation of tongues.

All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.
1 Corinthians 12:4-11

For each of us, beyond being made to worship Him, were designed to express Him through our passions. Exactly as He hardwired us to.

You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your “part” mean anything. You’re familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in his church, which is his “body”:
apostles
prophets
teachers
miracle workers
healers
helpers
organizers
those who pray in tongues.
But it’s obvious by now, isn’t it, that Christ’s church is a complete Body and not a gigantic, unidimensional Part? It’s not all Apostle, not all Prophet, not all Miracle Worker, not all Healer, not all Prayer in Tongues, not all Interpreter of Tongues. And yet some of you keep competing for so-called “important” parts.
1 Corinthians 4: 27-31

Our purpose is to reveal Him through us.

How you do so will be very different from how I do, for no two of us are alike. We are all unique and have a unique part in the body.

When we all live in the sweet spot, where what we were meant to do lines up with who He has made us to be?

Our lives reveal Him just as they were designed.

When everything falls in to place, a sense of home wells up within.

We find our purpose.

For the sweet spot cannot be achieved on our own. It has to align with His heart & plan for us, or it is only an empty shell of the fullness He has planned.

In His hands, life is the sweetest.

With Him is the sweet spot.

If you aren’t sure of your purpose, spend some time seeking Him. Ask Him to help you discover what may be lying dormant or unknown within you. There are great resources to take stock of your spiritual giftings, which may bring to light things you are already doing in the natural!

Be the you God designed.

Ruth Soukup be you HJ

…because there was no room in the hostel.

Luke 2:7 MSG

Not only was there no room at the hotels or inns in Bethlehem, but the B&Bs & hostels were also all full.

It appears that the Carpenters (coz doesn’t that seem like a good fit for Joseph & Mary’s last name?!) arrived in town later than all the other travelers who also had to show up for the census role call.

With an about to give birth wife in tow, I am sure Joseph was inwardly wishing for swifter mail or reservation service!

How disheartening to arrive, and keep knocking on doors looking for a place to lay their heads, after several weeks of travel.

When even the hostels don’t want you, it can seem the world is hostile.

Yet God made a way.

That final knock, a likely very humbled Joseph asked again, and was informed there was room in the stable for them that night.

With an about to give birth wife in tow, those begging cannot be too choosy, especially if the night was growing cold and dark.

And the baby announced He was on His way.

I am sure the stable was the only place left to choose from, because no man in his right mind would encourage his wife to deliver in a barn. But somehow, this too was part of God’s design.

The King of All was about to be born, and only one person made room for Him, and that was only in their stable.

How much space are you making for Him this year?

Do you only invite God into your stable, where the muck and things that need to be tamed live? Where you rule?

Or do you open wide your heart, mind, soul & spirit and say Yes, God- abide in me. Every nook & cranny, leave no dark spot unturned- so His dwelling place can become worthy of the King living there?

I believe the owner of the stable was somehow blessed through offering its use to the Carpenters.
It is very likely they would have met the baby after He was born, maybe even helped arrange for a midwife to assist Mary, as out of towners wouldn’t always know where to turn in an emergency.

I wonder what animals were in the stable that night. I wonder if somehow they instinctively knew their King was being born, and were still out of respect.

I do know that the world still gives Jesus a hard time about His preferred living accommodations, within His children.

May He restore our wonder, that God loved us so much, His very son was born in a stable, and wrapped to lie in a manger.

The life that had come to give us new life first laid His head in the unlikeliest of beds.

May our hearts not be as hard at the wood of the manger, but instead invite Him in.

The greatest gift of all resided in heaven before being packaged in His humble beginnings here on earth.

Make room this Christmas for Jesus.

#AdventuresinAdvent are drawing closer to their climax! Immanuel is coming!

Tag: full

finding your sweet spot

when even the hostel is full