I serve on the women’s leadership team at my church. I have had this “burden” for women’s ministry for several years. It was the first area of the church that God appointed me, and it has been my passion ever since that time. In fact, I went to seminary because I became aware that my teaching had reached a place that needed to be more informed. My love for learning seemed perfectly matched for His call to preparation.

That being said, I serve on a wonderful women’s leadership team. I can’t even tell you the things that we laughed about at the last meeting. I really can’t tell you in writing…too incriminating. Oh, and we did a lot of business, too.

I had the opportunity to go to the YouLead conference with these ladies a few weeks ago, and it was incredibly helpful. I recommend it for your women’s leadership team, if it is in your area.

The topic of one session was, ‘going with God’. We all pray that, right? We want to be available for God to use us, expanding His ministry through us, or maybe we just pray that on good days. Nonetheless, I would say in the blogging world most people desire increase, not decrease. Most people living their ministry, desire more influence, not less. I am not necessarily talking about numbers, but hearts ripe for transformation.

At the conference, Chris Adams challenged us by saying that you cannot stay where you are and go with God. When she spoke these words, my head whipped around because she was on the mark. You cannot stay where you are and go with God. You have to find where God is working and join Him there. This is a great definition of ministry.

Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. – John 5:19, NRSV

Jesus could do nothing on his own. He saw the Father working and He copied that. He only worked where He saw His Father.

I wonder how my efforts would look if I diligently looked for the Father, if I watched His course and made my plans around that, and nothing else?

I would save time.

I would save heartache.

I would save headaches.

I would be with the Father.

Would your efforts look different?

I was just listening to A Woman Inspired – Get Revived 2010. Andrea, at Under Grace and Over Coffee, gave an amazing talk that frankly every woman needs to hear. There are still 2 days left in the conference, if you want to get in on the wonderful encouragement. You can also buy all of the talks later. Andrea was encouraging transparency. So here is some.

Today gave me the following images of myself…

I currently am a…

standing on a…

Seriously, the other day, I was given the image of a toddler refusing to potty train. That is apparently where I am spiritually. Not flattering. I think that might point to some control issues. What do you think?

There comes a time when you just have to be real with yourself. I have been ignoring some little voices and I now I am hearing a big message concerning…control, which stems from fear. My solution? Lisa Shaw talked about pursuing Jesus hard, and this is exactly what I cannot wait to do, right now.

Like I cannot wait to finish this post.

So, I can look like this…

Does anyone else feel ecstatic about that?

I am so grateful to hear these words today from my sisters. I hope that you are finding encouragement where you are.

Blessings.