It’s audio devo day!
Do you find yourself pushing through a long season of waiting for God’s promises to be fulfilled in your life? If so, He is doing some crucially important things as you wait on Him. Here is one of the very most important of all: He is developing hope on the inside of you. He has special encounters with His love waiting for you as you listen here:
(Encouraged by this? Know someone else that needs to hear it today? You can either share today’s blog link with them, or look up my Feeding on Jesus podcast for sharing and subscribing. You’ll find it at these links on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and most other podcast platforms, with episodes identical to these audio devos!)
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When you reflect on the development of hope inside of you, what would you say has contributed the most to its growth in your life?
Feeding On Jesus 
I can only affirm now from the perspective of a Senior that it has been in the valleys of my life that He has always been my Comfort and Hope indeed with HIM became my greatest treasure. AFTER a dark night comes the morning when you have the Presence of the Saviour with you. Thank you again Jennifer for your posts.
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You have such a powerful testimony to these truths, having walked with Him for a long time. I always cherish the opportunity to hear about it!
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Thank you for this very encouraging word that God is with us, those encounters with the love of God, the hope that builds up during those hard waiting seasons.
Also congrats on your book that is to come out next month. Guessing you will be giving out more details closer to the date.
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Aw, you made me smile big with this, thank you, my sister! I am excited about sharing the story of God’s faithfulness during Lily’s hospitalization. Yes, more details forthcoming 🙂 And you are so welcome!
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So good. Thank you for this blessing and reminder of what God is working inside of us through the dark nights. Looking forward to your book.
When you reflect on the development of hope inside of you, what would you say has contributed the most to its growth in your life?
Jesus revealing His never foresaking Presence – over and over again- in my present (through so many valleys – like through your post on Carmen’s prayer), in my past (as He heals my memories of spiritual abuse, where I had deemed Him absent and even cruel to me when I needed Him the most and yet He was right there – His heart breaking for me).
Visiting an elderly Prodigal every week and seeing the Spirit of God still so alive and active in her and God uncovering His Presence to her and to me, as we just share our lives and hearts over her lunch table is also where He’s revealing His Presence (and hope) to me. Watching her hunger and thirst (and mine) grow is so beautiful.
When I point out the beauty of God’s love in her heart and life, she says to me: I learnt that from you. But all I do is share what GOD is doing in my heart and life (through really painful choices He has led me to make) and so often He speaks His beautiful affirmation and encouragement through this woman – as she is going through what God just took me through: we end up affirming each other in the LORD. His sheep hear His Voice and do what He says.
She’s truly His hands and feet of compassion and healing in my life too. Nobody else I have met understands what I went through as a little girl and as an adult (through spiritual abuse) but this woman comes the closest to “getting it” because she’s lived through something so very similar and when I speak of how I talk to God about everything in prayer and even pray spontaneously in her Presence for us both as the Holy Spirit prompts me to – it’s causing her also to turn to God in prayer and I am seeing that fruit so beautifully unfolding in her and in myself.
But what I also notice is that Monday fills me with joy and hope and faith in God’s Presence and then Tuesdays with my driving lesson I hit rock bottom. Oh LORD grow my endurance and character in that place also that I might see Your hope unfolding in me there also.
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She sounds like a very special kindred spirit. And amen! Yes, Lord Jesus, we give the driving lessons into Your powerful and able hands of pure love! Trusting Your beautiful heart together to perfect the good work you have begun in my dear sister 🙏💕
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Hmmm: this has me thinking. I asked for prayer here, when my Prodigal friend asked me to read a book by her guru (who claimed to have been the reincarnation of Jesus). God compelled me to say yes: and I thought: great! He’s now asking me to intercede for her as I read. But no! He had her reply in a really strange and unexpected way. She said it was enough for her that I said yes – and that I did so after wanting to say no but choosing to take it to God in prayer. She then said again recently that she realized I didn’t need “saving”. But the funny thing is that I too realized she didn’t need saving either because she was and always has been safely in God’s hands. His beautiful Spirit and Presence never left her. He may have been covered over some as He has been in me too at times – but His ownership over and authority over us has never been shaken. Each thing we went through has been purposed for the saving of many – as God reveals HIS saving power for us and in and through us.
Which makes me wonder if Tuesdays are different than my Mondays because I haven’t gone through a long process of surrender – as I did to get to this place with my volunteer job (through a fresh experience of spiritual abuse as a returned Prodigal). I pray about my driving lessons, asking God to open my eyes to His Presence (which He is) – but perhaps I just need to lean into His slower process in this – asking Him also to help me to endure (as I learn to abide in His lack of frustration and His gentleness for me and not the enemy’s accusations) and to grow in my character through it all.
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That sounds like a very good insight, Anna. Holy Spirit, please confirm your Word as You always so generously do!
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Thank you for your prayers. I woke up this morning with the song: My God is so big, so strong and so mighty There’s nothing my God cannot do” on my heart. Then, as anxiety rose in my heart about my referral to a heart specialist, I went to a quiet place to pray and God took back into His hands what I had been holding in mine through a Scripture He gave me. Then moments later my little brother texted about his own anxiety and the sermon God sent – which I promptly asked him to share 😅. That gave me such insight.
My driving lessons are a spiritual battle ground. The enemy lost the battle against my life and soul at the church God sent me to, where I went through spiritual abuse (God literally filled my feet with heaviness that felt like lead and kept me from taking my own life and began to show me His powerful headship over every ruler and authority sent to kill and destroy. Now, He is waging war to discourage me and wear me out – encouraging me to take on burdens that aren’t mine to carry. My husband recently encouraged me to fast again. I hadn’t felt God call me to do so, but in that sermon I did. And then, these verses in the sermon spoke so deeply to me:
This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid! Don’t be discouraged by this mighty army, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.
You will not have to fight this battle. Just stand there and watch the Lord save you.
I realized the atmosphere in my driving lessons is dark and oppressive. There’s a spiritual hold there that I have been allowing- in agreeing with the enemy’s accusations sent to discourage me. But no more! “I don’t know what to do, but my eyes are on you, LORD” and I know He is giving me His strategy download: fast, pray, be still, praise His headship over every ruler and authority.
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That’s some powerful strategy, my sister! I am joining my faith to yours in agreement for the victory to manifest!
I am pondering on your husband encouraging you to fast; I thought I remembered you saying that he is not yet a believer?
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🤣😂 oh he believes and trusts in God: he just doesn’t see that yet. God’s Word does not lie and He says that he is holy and so are our girls: His girls. My marriage is equally yoked in Jesus, who is at the center of all we do because of the faith He’s given me.
Visiting New Zealand my childhood friend of 30+ years, she was stunned at the fruit of the Spirit she could see in my husband. The last time she had seen him was 4.5 years ago.
I told her that I also see how God has been growing fruit in me and in her also, as He’s grown our faith and trust in Him through my husband. There’s so much in His Word that if we would just run with it we would see amazing things unfolding! It took me years to humble myself beneath God’s mighty hand in my marriage (oh how stubborn and religiously prideful I was and still can be at times) and daily He’s still having me do so. My husband is deeply respected by his employer also, as those around him are drawn to the wisdom and discernment of God at work in him. I know one day God will rip aside that final veil and my husband will be gobsmacked and so in awe of God’s love for him. I am in awe of God’s love for me through him. And that’s only growing more daily.
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What a beautiful testimony of faith! The Father rejoices in your confession of beautiful trust in these areas, and so do I. Amen and AMEN!
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Oh and this too! Because when I got home from doing the groceries, this song played in my heart: “standing, standing, I’m standing on the Promises of God my King.” So, that makes me think of asking God for specific Promises to memorize and stand in during the lessons.
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I love how He speaks to us through spiritual songs, including ones from childhood!
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And I just have to add what insight came as I shared of the panic attack with my seeking friend. I told her that moments before, when I was exhausted after having traversed multiple streets with road works and bikes everywhere, God had lifted my eyes to see clouds forming these huge uplifted hands and I felt God say: “I’ve got you, Anna. It’s me whose carrying you.”
That panic attack came after my driving instructor began to list all the things I was doing/had done wrong and keep doing wrong. But when I look back at the calm God gave me to carefully look around, to stop and to carefully look and then park the car when panic began to set in – that was His headship taking over. And then He had me speak up to my instructor about the comments that had set that panic into motion – which He had already been asking me to speak to him about earlier (but I hadn’t 😅). But what I also see is that I then also began to speak of my heart condition as the cause – and put myself in the victim role, rather than resting in God’s authority that had also had me go through a whole medical assessment to get approved for driving before I started lessons. Forgive me, Papa! I am not a victim but an overcomer in You who are healing me and causing me to stand firm in Your Word to me and You told me to do this, so You have already paved my Way – as You keep showing me with every obstacle put in my Way – as You assert Your authority over me and my mind, heart and my whole body.
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Aww, what a precious gift, that He would speak to you in such a visual way through a cloud formation! That is so personal and beautiful 🙂 Amen!
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