Sandra

It took me quite a bit of practice to’master’ the principles of fasting and prayer. I had heard many stories about how people had the most wonderful time with God during fasting, and I wanted to experience that too! The first time I fasted, I sacrificed my social media and television. That went well, but I couldn’t say that I saw God’s presence or breakthroughs. I read up on fasting and prayer, and also discovered that true Biblical fasting means depriving yourself of food. In our modern world, we have put our own spin on it by also adding social media fasting. But let’s be honest, during the time that Jesus physically walked the earth, He did not have a Facebook account that He deactivated for forty days. LOL /*! elementor – v3.21.0 – 30-04-2024 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} Fasting is a command of Jesus I also learned that fasting and praying was not an option but an assignment. Jesus assumes in Matthew 6:16, that we simply do that. He does not say here ‘if perhaps you are fasting’, but He clearly says ‘when you fast’, so He assumes that every Christian will do this. I really wanted to fast, but I just couldn’t do it. One time I lasted three days, but I didn’t pray, so it was more like a hunger strike. Then I gave up because of a headache. Another time it worked for five days, but again I didn’t take the extra time to seek God, and eventually I fell for the lie that it wouldn’t do anything and I gave up, and the only thing I experienced was frustration.  I didn’t understand it, but I was determined to try again. The following times I ‘failed’ because of attacks from the enemy, for which I was completely unprepared. The auxiliaries arrived! This had to be different! At the end of 2023, I saw a call from a large ministry here in the Netherlands, Frontrunners. They went to fast for twenty-one days in early January, and anyone who wanted to participate could join via a Whatsapp-group. I wouldn’t let myself be told that twice! Twenty-one days had been a goal for me all along, and I really liked the principle of giving the first twenty-one days of the new year to God. I registered and also received forms with some explanations and tools. This helped me enormously as extra support. In the end, almost seven hundred people joined the group, so that was very encouraging! Every day, the ministry posted a beautiful Bible verse or reflection. It helped me a lot to kind of know not to do it alone. I thought it was a little bit scary not to eat anything for twenty-one days, so I asked God for advice. After this I got on my heart to eat one meal a day, and that was dinner, after six p.m. Those meals were very frugal. I would only eat some vegetables and a lean piece of meat or fish. I didn’t take anything else during the day, just water, lemonade or tea. Not only that, but I had also prepared well in advance. I prayed, asked and thanked God for His guidance and His strength. Something I had not done before. Previously I stepped into it with both legs at the same time on my own judgment, and without first offering it up in prayer. But, this time I did things differently, and it worked! For the first time, I lasted twenty-one days! Halleluja! Cheese! The scheming seducer I have had a few slip-ups where I couldn’t control myself and had a few slices of cheese or a rice waffle. The enemy immediately accused me, and tried to get me to give up now that I had made a slip. But, I had mercy on myself. Said: “sorry Lord, this was a shame, I’ll just move on.” And then I just picked it up again.  The enemy wants us to fall and give up, but even though we may fall, you just get back up and keep going (Proverbs 24:15). God sees your heart, and He also knows that we are not perfect. He is already very pleased that we want to respond to his order. God is with you I did not notice much in terms of God’s presence or breakthroughs during the first eight days. Now that’s really not necessary; I’ve learned that too. I waited in the void for lightning bolts, landslides or angels from heaven, what a bummer. LOL Although with God everything is possible, the intention must be above all because we want to come humbly before God, and God will always respond to this. This does not necessarily have to be immediately during your fasting. Breakthroughs or answers can also come later. It is also not about whether we ‘feel’ God’s presence, He is with us anyway. I had missed the point the other times with that. Fasting also a great way to learn to crucify our flesh. Be prepared for the fight of your life against your flesh. It can be challenging quite a bit at first. You have always been at the service of your flesh, when it shouted, “Feed me!!!” you immediately jumped up to feed it. And now suddenly you demand that it listen to you.  So if you don’t respond now, it will scream louder and louder, and before the first day is over, it will probably scream out, “Help!! Feed me, I’m dying!!” The next day, it will scream even louder, “Feed me; I’m dying a slow death.” It will use all possible weapons to convince you of its impending death. But once you get to day three, you will notice that it is finally going to shut up LOL. This is what it means to die to your flesh; this will make you spiritually stronger, and your connection to God will become much more sensitive. Back to my twenty-one-day

If, like me, you have lived in the world for a very long time. A life far away from God, completely in darkness, and you later come to faith, you might feel ashamed of your past and the choices you made at the time. Although God fortunately no longer remembers our sins as far as the East is from the West (Psalm 103:12), we can sometimes want to put things from the past in a closet and never think or talk about them ever again. Safely, and far away from the eyes of other people.  I myself have been quite bothered by the things I have done or said and the choices I have made in the past that damaged others and myself, and I have found it difficult to let go. But God showed me, through His Word, that I am not that person anymore, and He certainly does not look at me that way! I had to renew my mind (Romans 12:2) about how He sees me. And that was a process that took quite some time! /*! elementor – v3.21.0 – 18-04-2024 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} Hope for the broken Last year, I was able to take a fantastic mission trip to Brazil with a wonderful ministry that campaigns, evangelizes, distributes food parcels and visits all kinds of addiction clinics to proclaim King Jesus everywhere! It was a wonderful time, and miracles happened all the time! Everywhere, we told our testimonies and how we were all brought out of darkness by God into the light! There was enormous encouragement for the people there; these were all people who were deep in the darkness, looking for a way out or a glimmer of hope. And we were allowed to show and tell; we are no different from you; we do not come here from a rich country with an attitude; “let us show how great we are”, and then fly back to our lives in the luxurious west. No, we are just like you. Broken women and men, with some of us from the most traumatic backgrounds. We had experienced loss, brokenness, grief, and trauma ourselves. But there is Someone!! “There is Someone who offers you a way out! Come and see! Come and hear from this Man!  His name is Jesus. Come and hear about Him, what He did for us, He will do for you!” We were allowed to express, the joy, and the Good News of The Gospel. It left a lasting impression. And that was it! That’s where I had the revelation: I don’t have to be ashamed of my past; with this, I can help and encourage others, and God is honored, and that is what it is ultimately all about. That He gets the honor He deserves.  Every time I was able to share my testimony in various clinics or orphanages, and share what God had done for me, I saw the hope in the eyes of the people there. And God works so beautifully, because my pain and wounds were healed by sharing and seeing that it also gives others hope, and I also saw things happening to them. When we think we are worth nothing, can’t do anything, or are ashamed of the things we have done. When people are happy to remind us of our past and the mistakes we made, God doesn’t care at all. He will eventually use everything for good! By simply telling our life stories and testimonies in Brazil, people came to faith, were baptized and were filled with the Holy Spirit. In the meanwhile, our wounds were also healed. I have often noticed that God works in a way that both are blessed, not only the recipient, and you will receive a word or a blessing next time, but both are built up, helped, and blessed. Child of the Most High Dear brother or sister, do not be ashamed of your past. Let God use what you’ve been through, for you’ll see that it’s precisely those things that you’ve been through and through your heartache and sorrow that God can use to win people for His kingdom and to help you get better.    “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” — Romans 8:28 What has been, has been, it is no longer who you are (2 Corinthians 5:17); start seeing yourself as you are now; A child of the Most High!

Not all of us will grow up in an environment filled with God’s love. In fact, I think most of us live completely in darkness before responding to God’s call. At least, when I look at myself, that has certainly been the case. For forty years, even. By the time I came to know God, old patterns and ways of thinking had already worn into my thoughts and habits. Miserable events had already left their mark. Ways of thinking about myself, old wounds and my view of the world. Of course, it makes sense that we all go through a lot of things in life, since we live in a broken world. Either way, we all face a lot of trauma and misery. We all have a backpack. We put up walls, an certain attitude or a mask, all for self-protection, and before you know it, you no longer even notice that you are doing it. It has become second nature to you. We put our skeletons in the closet, out of sight, out of mind, right? Or not… Clean up the mess We will never be able to clean up all the mess from the past on our own because sometimes we simply can no longer be aware of why we have certain patterns or actions. You can walk around with wounds in your soul for years without even realizing it, or maybe you are aware of it, but don’t know how to solve it. People turn to drugs, sex, alcohol or all kinds of other ways to numb the pain in their soul. We hop from relationship to relationship thinking we can fill certain holes in our souls. We kick at people or blame others, etc. People have these addictions and patterns out of pain. They do not show up out of thin air. Somewhere, something has happened that damaged their hearts. How do you break out of this when you may not even know what is bothering you or where your wounds come from? How do you get to the core, the root of the problem? All kinds of therapies are out there, and I won’t say they are all ineffective, but rather than hopping from therapy to therapy, treatment to treatment or from doctor to doctor why not go to THE Healer? Jesus, our Healer There is Someone who knows us better and knows best what we need and where our wounds come from. He knows better than anyone else how to heal this. I remember so well that God healed me from wounds that I thought had long been healed. Years had already passed, and I thought I had processed some things by now, but God showed me that was not the case. He showed me what had to be removed and cleaned up because it would cause blockages. He is interested in cleaning, organizing, and healing our hearts (Psalm 147:3). As with an invisible finger, He will place it on the sore spot. Not to break us or hurt us, but to point it out to us because you can’t acknowledge what you don’t know. “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” – Psalm 51:10 Sometimes certain things must first be demolished before they can be rebuilt. He does that, breaks us gracefully, in love, and then builds us up again, using His love and strenght as our new foundation to build on. God knows your heart. He made you. He knows you inside and out, even better than you know yourself. Not only that, but He knows what you need to heal. Ask Him to search your heart and show you what hidden pitfalls there are, as David also prayed: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” – Psalm 139: 23-24. We need to be healed; we cannot continue to walk as broken people because not only is it not good for ourselves, it is certainly not good for the people around us. We unknowingly damage others, and a downward spiral is born. Likewise, we need God’s love to set us free from this. I want to encourage you to let Him heal your wounds with His immeasurable love. He will help clean up all your traumas, wounds and messes, but you must give Him permission to do so because He will not force Himself to you. Give your heart to Him and let Him become the Healer of your soul.

Sometimes I think, how sad it is that there are so many people who don’t know Jesus. People who may have never heard His name, people who think He is not real or never existed, as if He were a fairy tale character. People who misuse His name for their own gain or even as a swear word. How sad it is because if everyone knew Who He really is, that He lives, that He still performs miracles, saves, heals and raises people up. Then everyone would be lining up to get to know Him. People’s lives continue to be changed by Him. His character is out of this world He is indescribably good, unfailingly faithful, infinitely patient and unconditionally loving. When you really know Him, you cannot understand why people don’t want to know Him. I am blessed with His presence in my life, and I follow Him with great devotion and, above all, out of great love for Him. Even though I have been walking with Him for about four years now, He still amazes me every day. I now know His character, but I am still often deeply impressed by how good He is. When I think of all those people who don’t know Him and even despise Him, I could cry because this is not what He deserves. He does not deserve to be rejected, ridiculed, ignored or portrayed as a myth. But unfortunately, it has been happening for thousands of years. And He Himself was all too aware of this (John 15:18-19). Yell His Name! “I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love.” – Hosea 11:4 Somewhere in a gray area of my brain, I can still remember what it is like not to know Him. I also used His Name as a swear word and did not want to know anything about Him for a long time. Trust me, I know what it’s like. Yet, His love has grabbed me, as God Himself says: He draws us to Himself with cords of love (Hosea 11:4). Now I no longer want to think about having to live a life without Him and doing everything on my own strength. Where was my mind all these years? I now know that there is an enemy who would love to keep us in that state of ignorance, passivity and hostility towards Him. Yet, now I understand all too well all those people, including myself, who want to share the love of Jesus with everyone who doesn’t know Him. I understand now why people want to share their happiness because knowing Him is not something you want to keep to yourself. Yell His Name!!! (Acts 1:8) is what you most want to do. Jesus freak All those people I used to see standing in the center of the city, proclaiming the Gospel, whom I then labeled as “Jesus freaks”, I now understand better than anyone. Because Oh boy! If you only knew Him!! No, we have not become “cuckoo” as we say in the Netherlands. We have not lost our minds, and we are also not indoctrinated or members of a cult. Jesus lives! He’s real! And He really wants to get to know you too! The reason you are reading this is certainly no coincidence! He is looking for you and has chosen you (John 15:16) now it is up to you to choose whether you want to get to know Him. He will not force Himself on you, but waits patiently for you to open your heart to Him and invite Him into your life (Revelation 3:20). It is a choice from within yourself and He wants you to choose Him from your own free will. But I guarantee you that it will be the best choice you ever made or will ever make in your life! He will not leave you untouched. Guaranteed you will fall in love with Him and He will completely change your life. He gives you a new heart and new desires. Jesus changes everything, and He makes everything new (Ezekiel 36:26, Revelation 21:5)! If you want to get to know Him, and invite Him into your life, open your heart, and say this to Him: “Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Come into my life. I acknowledge You as the Son of God, and I believe that You died on the cross for my sins and that You rose again on the third day. Forgive me for my sins,  I want to know You as Lord of my life and Savior of my soul. Thank you, Jesus!”. If you have declared this with your mouth, and if you really believe it in your heart, you are now saved (Romans10:9).  Now one more task remains. Find a local church or ministry where you can be baptized, that is extremely important. (Acts 2:38) (www.frontrunners.nl) Congratulations, dear brother or sister. Welcome to God’s Kingdom and welcome to His family!

Jesus is our Leader in everything (Heb. 12:2) and fortunately we do not have to do it all alone to become more like Him. Praise God that we have the Holy Spirit to help us. But sometimes we will have to roll up our sleeves ourselves. God’s promise is that He helps us and does everything in cooperation with us, not that He actually chews everything out for us and we sit back with everything. There are times when we have to do things ourselves. If we look at Jesus, His life was no different. He of course did things together with God, but He also had to make the decision to actually make time for God, and to maintain the relationship with the Father. Exactly as we (should) do, although unfortunately I also miss the mark from time to time. Jesus regularly took time out to spend in prayer and intimacy with the Father (Mark 1:35, Mark 6:46, Matthew 14:23, Luke 6:12, Luke 5:16, Luke 9:18). He often suddenly disappeared from the radar, and His disciples sometimes even lost Him. Of course, we know that in fear, just before His crucifixion, He also sought the Father in prayer (Luke 22:39-46). So Jesus sought moments every day to pray and maintain His relationship with God. Naturally, by the time His ministry began, and He was recognized and sought out by more and more people, He became increasingly busy. People began to see all the wonders and signs He was performing, and hordes of people flocked to Him. Yet, He took time for everyone and rejected no one. In addition to this busyness, He continued to make room to spend time with God. Of course, Jesus is special and supernatural in everything and I have no illusions of surpassing Him, but in some way this grates on my soul. If Jesus needed time with God and in prayer to function, how much more do we need it! /*! elementor – v3.20.0 – 26-03-2024 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} God in the waiting room I find that I am sometimes very busy with other things, or perhaps better said, I make myself busy. Days fly by, and before I know it, another week is over. We can easily fill our days with everyday worries. While in fact, they pale into insignificance when we compare them to our relationship with God. I’ll be honest, I sometimes put God in the waiting room of my life where He can take a seat until it’s His turn. What an arrogant attitude, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has to wait for me. Things can go well for a long time, only to become distracted again after a while. Of course, we also have to deal with an enemy who throws all kinds of things at our feet to distract us by, for example, “sprinkling sand in our eyes” just when you want to read the Bible, but as soon as you start scrolling on Instagram you are wide awake again. Just snoozing in bed, that Netflix episode, doing some quick housework, worrying, etc., that jerk can come up with all kinds of things to keep us away from time with God. But of course we can’t blame him for everything, let’s be honest. Let your brain work God has gifted us with a fantastic working brain, although you would think that in some people it might not work optimally 😉 LOL. But I assume yours works perfectly fine, just like mine does, by the way. Praise God. So in fact, I should be able to make better decisions about this, and yet there are still moments when I get caught up in the things of the day and suddenly realize that I haven’t taken time for God yet. Item on the agenda, literally, to change my attitude and start setting priorities. Ultimately, He must have the highest place in our lives, knowing when we do, things run smoother.  I also really notice that when I have made little or no time for God for days, things become more difficult. I try to do the things on my own and become exhausted. I need Him in everything I do, and even if I don’t do anything, I still need Him! At such moments, I can really experience a feeling of homesickness for Him. He knows our hearts Fortunately, thanks to the sacrifice of Jesus, we live under the new Covenant, and we can come back into His grace every time we mess up. This creates space to fall and get up again to continue our journey in His presence. He stands next to us to catch us and raise us up again. It is thanks to this grace that we can choose Him again every day, learn to make better choices and become more like Him. His grace is new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23) “They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Be merciful to yourself as God is merciful to us. He knows that we are just human and He knows our hearts. If we continue to seek Him with a sincere heart, there is nothing to worry about. Relax!

1 Corinthians 12:12-13 shows us that we all have our own task and assignment within the church, which in turn works together as one body: “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.”  1 Corinthians 12:12-13 I was able to experience exactly how that works in Brazil during the mission trip I took last year. We had already been in Brazil for a number of days and had already been able to do and experience beautiful things for God. One day we visited a wonderful organization set up by a Dutch pastor and his American wife.  Years ago, at the Lord’s behest, they started setting up an orphanage for teenage mothers, but they soon added teenage boys and teenage girls, an addiction clinic for men and also a church was built on the project. A beautiful project in a beautiful and relaxing location. While we were there, the group was split up. Some of us visited the boys, another group went to the teenage mothers and teenage girls, and the last group visited the addiction clinic for men. I personally went to the young mothers and teenage girls. It was a beautiful afternoon, and we were able to share the love of Jesus and testify about Him. In the evening a church service was held in the church on the project and everyone was of course welcome. Some of the teenagers went, but there was also a large proportion who did not knew Jesus yet and did not want to go to the church service. The girls who did go were looking forward to it. The most beautiful clothes were brought out, they took a shower and dressed up for their King! /*! elementor – v3.20.0 – 20-03-2024 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} Without a fight, there is no victory The evening arrived, and we took a seat in the front row of the church with the entire group from the mission trip. Two women from our mission group had prepared a beautiful song, which they sang in Portuguese. Beautiful! A man from our group, and I had each prepared a sermon that we could recite. I had experienced so much struggle before I left on this mission. For months before the trip, the enemy continuously tried to prevent and discourage me to go, even on the day of departure. He had tried to undermine me in all kinds of ways, but in the end, I arrived on that cold January 19th, 2023, at Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands for my trip to Brazil. I was spiritualy, physically and emotionally completely exhausted from all the months of non stop attacks, but that did not stop me. Without a fight, there is no victory, right? Praise the Lord!! All those months of struggle had not been in vain, because I had used it in my sermon that evening in that little church.  All the Glory to King Jesus I was allowed to come forward and share what God had put on my heart about this, and it was translated into Portuguese. The church was packed. It was my first time speaking in front of such a large group of people, but in the power of the Lord, it went smoothly. Beforehand, I said to God, “Lord, if there is just one person I can reach with my testimony, that will be fantastic!” After me, the other man from the group delivered a powerful message with a core: the mission of Jesus and the importance of being baptized! For a moment, the enemy put a thought in my mind, that my message was insignificant compared to his beautiful and powerful message. But I quickly shook it off. It was a blessed evening. At the end of the service, the question arose: were there people in the room who did not know Jesus yet, but wanted to get to know Him? A number of people stood up, including this one man. People gave their lives to Jesus there, and it was beautiful. After the service, there was an opportunity to baptize in the pool next to the church. I walked outside and stood by the pool. The man who had just given his life to Jesus ran towards me, shouting “My angel, my angel” while waving at the interpreter for her to come over because he urgently wanted to tell me something. He was so grateful for what I had shared in my sermon, which was mainly about the amount of struggle we can experience if we want to take a step for God, but that we should not let the enemy steal and destroy what God wants us to have, because he has already been defeated! “Say NO to the devil” was the core of my message. What had completely passed me by was the fact that we, as a group, had worked together perfectly as one body that day, just as God wants! The man turned out to be a patient in the men’s addiction clinic on the project. That afternoon, he had listened to all the stories told in the clinic by the people from our mission group, but he was very skeptical. He thought it was all a strange story, all those stories about God, and he wondered if there was a God at all. So I heard afterward. Yet, there the little seed was sown in his heart. It made him come to the service, and that evening in the church he heard my sermon. This was so recognizable to him, and the enemy was unmasked! He decided on the spot to give his life to Jesus!! After that decision, he heard the sermon from the other man in our group and

Have you ever been in a season of waiting? A season where it seems quiet and deserted, like a desert?  I ended up there after I took a step of faith, and everything in my life changed as a result. At that point, I didn’t realize I was in a waiting season yet. I had never heard of it or dealt with it. I became impatient because I thought, “Okay, Lord, I have taken a step in faith and left this period behind me. What are we going to do next?!”  I’m not really the type who likes to sit still; I’m always busy and messing around in my house or doing stuff. I believe today’s society expects us to be busy. Everyone is busy, so you have to be busy too and meet all kinds of expectations.  But, we are no longer of this world, and we serve a God who certainly does not follow the “rules” of this world! I always find it so beautiful how God also uses my dear friend to speak to me through her. And she is not afraid to tell me what God puts on her heart, even though sometimes they are things I would rather not hear. God also spoke through her about the season I found myself in: “Maybe you should just do nothing at all, but rest.” “Take some rest?!? What do you mean? I don’t have time to rest!” I had no idea what that looked like. What does a person do during “rest”? I didn’t understand any of it. I started to look into it and pray about it. “Okay, Lord, what now? What should I do now?”  God had pointed out a number of points to me months before: Renew your mind (Romans 12:1-2), sow the Word in your heart, meditate on the Word, make time for Him, and make your body a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2), and at that moment He reminded me of these points again. During a season of waiting and not knowing what God wants you to do, He seems silent, and you don’t know what next step to take. I want to encourage you to wait. We are so tempted to keep going like an express train, but stand where you are and wait until you hear from God; until then, just keep doing the last thing He spoke to you. For me, that meant staying in the Word, continuing to renew my thinking according to the Word, making time for Him, being good and healthy with my body, and getting some rest. When we think of waiting, we may quickly think of being silent and passive, but a waiting season with God is not passive but active! Try to continue to develop, grow in your relationship with God, and serve in your church or community, and above all, don’t think God needs your help because you become impatient! “He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others.He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.” — Daniel 2:21 This season won’t last forever! /*! elementor – v3.20.0 – 13-03-2024 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} Don’t give birth to Ismael I once heard in a sermon, ”don’t give birth to Ishmael.”  We all know the story of Abraham and Sarah. God promised them a son, but when this had not happened after years of waiting, Sarah took matters into her own hands and urged Abraham to father a child with Hagar, Ishmael (Genesis 16). Now we know that was not a very good choice and certainly not God’s intention. Waiting can sometimes feel uncomfortable; you can feel lonely and forgotten. It can be confusing, and you may become impatient and tempted to give God a hand and want to make decisions for yourself.  I want to encourage you; don’t go out, and “birth an Ismael”. Take it one day at a time and keep doing what God last spoke to you.  Embrace the season of waiting, take time to develop and grow in your faith. Discover what your gifts and talents are, go to college or do a Bible study, and serve other people. A breakthrough may be closer than you think Only God knows how long your waiting season will last, but never think of it as a waste of time. With God, nothing is wasted, and He uses it for good. He sees you (Genesis 16:13), is with you, and entering the new season, might come sooner than you think!

Before I met Jesus, I was extremely insecure. I always thought I was too fat, couldn’t make my own decisions, and thought too little of myself. This was, of course, not good at all, but this had to do with very old patterns and ways of thinking that I could not change on my own. I always looked for validation from others; I asked for help with every decision that had to be made, and I always asked myself what I looked like. Whether my make-up was good and whether my clothes did not make me look fat. I also expressed all this uncertainty very often. Recently, I was reminded by God that I actually didn’t do this anymore! As much as I used to be concerned with my appearance, especially in a negative sense, I am no longer concerned with it at all these days. I still like nice clothes and make-up, but I no longer look at myself negatively. God has gradually freed me from this! What a relief to no longer be insecure about not only my appearance but my entire identity! I have been able to learn from God that it is only important how He thinks about me and not how people think about me. I have been able to re-evaluate how He sees me, and see myself that way. To be honest, I didn’t have to put any effort into this. I think because I put God first and was only concerned with Him, He started working with me and restored this to me without me even realizing it. God is so good! /*! elementor – v3.19.0 – 28-02-2024 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} “Seek first the kingdom of God and all other things will be added to you.” – Matthew 6:33 Words have power! The Bible teaches us that life and death is in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). With this, God points out to us that we must be extremely careful with what we say about ourselves and others. But in this blog, I just want to focus on the words we say about ourselves. All of this involves knowing that you know, that you know, that you know, and that you know who you are in Christ. No, this isn’t a typo, LOL. It is knowing in the depths of your soul what your identity is in Christ. That is, by far, the most important thing! Because this makes all other opinions of people or your own negative opinion of yourself pale into insignificance. They are no longer important. But we also need to become aware of the words we say. We are so quickly inclined to say negative words, words of illness and ‘death’. “Everyone has the flu, so I will get it too. I cannot do this or I can’t do that. That is too ambitious for me etc.” You can’t imagine anything so crazy, and we speak things out, not knowing that we are actually cursing ourselves and giving the enemy a pass into our lives! Return to Sender I prefer not to give the enemy a platform, but what I mean by this requires some explanation. The enemy is powerless in the life of a born again Christian for we have the authority of Jesus. “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.” – Luke 10:19 He can only do something if we give him permission to do so or accept his lies. I am a visual thinker, and what helped me enormously was the image of the enemy standing at my door with a package in his hands. He rings the doorbell, and I open it and see that jerk. Included in that package is probably nothing good, since he can only bring trouble. It must be lies, disease, poverty or something like that. He wants to give me that package, but what am I going to do? Well, do not accept the package, right? Just keep your garbage with you; I don’t need it. This is how he comes into our lives with his mess, lies and misery. Only, do we accept it, or do we return it to sender? He has different tactics and often he starts with lies in your head in the hope that you will say them out loud. Once you say these lies, you are essentially accepting his package. You give him permission; you come into an agreement. Lies like “you can’t do that, you’re not good enough, you’re ugly, you’re too fat, everyone has the flu so you’ll get the flu too” you name it, he can come up with all kinds of things. “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.  The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” – 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 When you know who you are in Christ, you also know how to distinguish the lies. You learn this by simply spending time with God and staying in His Word. “Keep this book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” –Joshua 1:8 It’s like a domino effect: you go from thinking — to speaking — and then you see things manifested in your life. But the good news is; it works the same way with speaking words of life! Hallelujah! To become aware of what you actually say about yourself, you could think or say “Just the way I like it” behind every thought or everything you say about yourself. I’m sick again, Just the way

There have been several moments in recent years when God asked me to take a step of faith. But it took some time before I realized that was what He was asking of me. Maybe you recognize it. You pray for a while for a certain situation, but not much happens yet. It may frustrate you, but you might also wonder: What is God asking me to do in this situation? I found, and sometimes still find, that it is so difficult to hear God’s voice. Although I notice that things are getting better, God speaks in different ways, and fortunately, I am starting to recognize more and more typically when He wants to say something to me. /*! elementor – v3.20.0 – 13-03-2024 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} Small detail Taking a step of faith can sometimes be so terribly scary. This is how I experienced taking the step to register for the mission trip to Brazil. After the penny finally dropped that God wanted me to do this, I had to take the step. It took a long time, and it started with a longing in my heart. This is how He typically works: He brings a desire to your heart.  And after much prayer and many confirmations, it was finally clear to me that this was what God wanted me to do. I was happy and extremely excited, but I just had a few problems.  The biggest obstacle was that I didn’t have money for such a trip (small detail, lol). Okay, I thought, I needed to start building my faith with the Word and started reading the Word about how God provides when you are obedient to what He asks of you. You don’t have to be afraid; He will provide. I came back from the information evening of the trip and felt deep in my soul I’M GOING TO BRAZIL! So, I took a step of faith, signed up for the trip and immediately the next morning I received confirmation in a very special way that God would provide. I received a message from a person. She had told another person that I was going to make this trip and that lady decided she wanted to make a donation. At that moment I didn’t know how much she wanted to donate, but that didn’t matter, it was the first confirmation for me that everything would turn out fine.  The Foundation that organizes these trips requested that you bring “blessing money” of a minimum certain amount. We would spend this amount of money on the spot in São Paulo on the people who needed it there.  Okay, I thought, how are we going to make this happen? I prayed about it and decided to believe God for 5x the amount that was needed. In the end, 7x the required amount was received! How I ended up paying for the trip is still a mystery for me.  I had heard testimonies from people before that God had provided in a special way, but afterward they had no idea how it had actually been made possible. That’s exactly how I experienced it. In any case, it was miraculous.  Finally, I prayed to God, “Okay Lord, I am super grateful that You are sending me, but in addition to believing that You provide, I am also going to believe that I will not be completely broke when I return home😊. I am going to believe You that when I return I will not have to notice financially that I have just made a mega expensive trip.”  And so it happened! The trip was paid for, the blessing money was more than sufficient, and I did not have to live on dry bread and water upon return LOL. “Let it be done just as you believed it would” (Matthew 8:13) Not lacking in anything When we walk in His will, He will also ensure that you do not fall short in anything, and you will get to the place where He wants you! Jesus sent out His disciples in Matthew 10: 9-10, and they were not allowed to take anything with them. This was to show that He would care for them if they went out in His Name. And in Luke 22:35, we also read that they lacked nothing. He not only takes care of you in your daily needs, but He also takes care of you when you go out in His Name. He is our Provider, Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. His disciples also had to take a step of faith and take Jesus at His word that He would provide for them.  Perhaps they thought, “Just drop by the house quickly to take some things and food,” but Jesus simply asked them to go, and gradually they would discover that He cares for them. But they had to take that step themselves first. How scary that must have been! In those days, they didn’t have shops or gas stations along the side of the road, where you could quickly get a meatball sandwich when you were hungry. They were sent into the wilderness with nothing! There were no roads; they had to do everything on foot, and anything could happen along the way. But they set out, trusting that He would provide! Taking steps in faith can sometimes be very scary. But when you let yourself be led by the Holy Spirit, He will make it clear to you which direction you can go and when it is time to take that step.  Even though in the natural world you cannot yet see where you need to go, or it seems impossible, we walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).  Do you trust Me? If you are currently in a situation where you need to take a step of faith, I want to encourage you to trust God, Trust Him, and take the steps in a direction that

I think the Samaritan woman, is such a beautiful Bible story (John 4) and is therefore the source of inspiration for this website. A broken woman who is ignored by society. People gossiped about her and didn’t want anything to do with her. She had not made very smart choices in her life, and she actually didn’t want anything to do with anyone anymore. She even went to the well in the middle of the day, the hottest part of the day, because she knew that the entire village gets water in the cool of the morning. Not only that, but she didn’t feel like being confronted by people. The less she was in the picture, the less there could be gossip, she thought.  I can imagine that she might also have been disappointed that she saw a Man sitting by the well in the distance. I must honestly admit that I sometimes have moments of “not feeling like confronting people” because I may not be feeling well. Not the best way, I know, but you can have those moments sometimes, right? She arrives at the well and probably doesn’t want to exchange a word with the strange Jewish Man sitting there, maybe even avoiding eye contact. But that Man started the conversation! What courage, because He is a Jew and she is a Samaritan! They did not talk to each other; they avoided each other. But the unknown Man asks her for water. “Okay. Strange,” she must have thought. He then told her, that He could give her water, and if she drank it, she would never be thirsty again, He claimed. As I read the story, I could almost hear her thinking, “Why does He talk in riddles?” When the Man finally says things about her life that no one knows, the penny drops. “You must be the Messiah!” she says. Suddenly all burden and shame falls away from her, there, in that place, and at that moment, her eyes opened, and she knows Who she is looking at! /*! elementor – v3.22.0 – 26-06-2024 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} All her sins, sorrows and shames fall away, and she is immersed in His love! She runs back to the village, shouting, “Come see a Man! He knows everything about me; he must be Christ!” She even left her water jar behind. It was an image for me that she dropped everything from her hands and left it behind her. She then candidly told all the people in the village what she had experienced there at the well, which caused many people to come to faith. There, Jesus breaks all the chains that bound her and deals with her past. Jesus is waiting Everything about this story touches me, but especially how Jesus waited for her, where she was and in the state she was in; broken, frustrated, and sad. The world turned its back on her, but Jesus did not. He was patiently waiting for her.  How moving, and what an encouragement for us too. We often want to run away from Him out of shame, but that is not what He wants at all. He chose that day to sit by the well and wait, just as He chose to wait patiently for us to turn to Him, too. Because when we do that, He can show who He really is and what He wants to give us. No matter what we have been through or what wrong things we have done, Jesus is still waiting for us. He already knows everything about you and your past, and He still wants to talk to you and give you His love and His living water. And once you accept it, you will not be able to remain silent! And you want to let the whole world know who He is and what He has done for you. Invite Him into your life, and see what He can do!