Tiniest of Seeds
"He told me all that I ever did." - the Samaritan woman in John 4:39
Yes, life is messy and integration of Jesus and faith with life often doesn’t look like what we thought it was “supposed” to or think it "should" look like. Are we shocked? We are literally told by Jesus that this life is full of trials. Yet we as we show up we can heal and grow in ALL God promises. He has after all, overcome. We can too.
He saved me. I can’t say it more clearly than that. Yes, Jesus has proven to me to be the ultimate answer. Has it been easy? No. It’s been 25 years of a winding road that he has made straight. As I continue to walk it out, I can’t help but testify - and to talk with others in their own unique places on the discipleship road. How amazing.
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21
Tiniest of Seeds
Faith: Can the Tiniest Seed Really Move the Mountains?
Can a tiny mustard seed of faith really transform your life? Yes it can. But we have a choice to use it. Have you expected too much of yourself and too little of God? He ALWAYS wants our best (and he alone even can know what that is), he alone provides salvation and healing, and he alone ALWAYS acts to glorify his good and faithful name. Will we exercise the faith he has given us and ask him to provide what we actually need? He's promised to give it.
I don't want to be one who "has not because I ask not."
James 4:2b-3a "You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives."
Hello, this is Laureen with the Tiniest of Seeds podcast, and you guys, I have been desperate. I have been just desperate, and someone has asked me what my target audience is. That is something I've heard over the years, with BreathingB Him and now with Tiniest of Seeds. And my target audience is myself. And I just want to describe myself to you I'm a woman of faith, faith like a mustard seed, weak, desperate. This morning I woke up and I said, god, I cannot do it. Unless you show up, I cannot do it. I have been at the end of myself. I'm being challenged in every area of my life right now. And then, of course, it's easy to compare because, guess what? I've always been a perfectionistic, super performer. I think that I should have it all together, that my problems are not as big as everyone else's and that it's all my fault. That has been my narrative. My narrative has been that I need to have the answers, that I need to do it right, that I need to be there for other people. That's been my narrative. And you know what? Right now, I'm enough. Can I receive it? Well, yes, I can, in increasing capacity, because, guess what? My faith is growing and I don't know which of my listeners need to hear that today, if you have faith like a mustard seed, you can say I believe, help my unbelief. Today we're talking about faith. I'm going to testify a little bit because, guess what? We all are in need of the ministry of the Lord in equal measure. We are all equally desperate. Don't think for one second that your needs, that your desperate cries in the deep parts of your heart are not equally important. We all have different trials and tribulations. You are equally as important and you are enough. If you are not receiving the love and the ministry of the Lord, god Most High, if you are not able to walk in present joy, he has more for you and guess what? He wants to give it to you through faith. The faith that you have has been given by him says it all over the New Testament. Even faith is a gift from the Lord, god Most High. I pray that we will say Lord, increase our faith.
Laurine:I got a text from one of my dear friends today. I know I've gotten on my story on Instagram before. The Instagram handle is tinystiffseas. I've gotten on there and said hey, I love this book. It's called Search the Scriptures and it is a three-year Bible plan. Have you ever been bogged down by getting into the Word and tried to do the one-year Bible plan and quit? Well, I have. I'm great at hopping around the Word, but I've never been disciplined enough to read through the entire Word. So, search the Scriptures. A few of my other friends are also doing it and anyway I got this text. I finished my search the scriptures today, not without praying first that God would open my mind to understand them. He is faithful. What a nugget of gold he gave me today.
Laurine:Now this friend has been desperate as well, releasing something over one of her kids. It has felt impossible. The concern, the worry, the recognition. She has been desperate. Anyway, it's hard not to waver sometimes, but God will strengthen our faith. He has strengthened mine this morning. He will not let us fail. Love you, I'm standing with you. We are not enough without him, but we are with him. So we rest and we win in that today.
Laurine:Then she said PS, I had a dream. I was talking to someone. I told them about what my friend Lorraine said, and this is what I said. And I want to say it's pretty good If I was the one in the wilderness, like Jesus was, and hadn't eaten for 40 days, I would have mistaken Satan's suggestion to make bread from stones as a word from the Lord, and I would have done it, and I am saying that as a confession because we are so distracted. We need the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus did, and as we walk by faith, we can trust and acknowledge him, and he will make our path straight.
Laurine:And it was so encouraging that she echoed that back to me. She said how awesome God is sharing truth in my dreams. Take heart, lorraine, you're doing just fine. That's what you are doing, by God's grace, just fine. I love you, and you know what that is my word to you today, too. You, and you know what that is my word to you today, too. No matter where you are at, you are who God created you to be. You have the measure of faith that he has given you, and you can ask and seek and you can receive more. It is so encouraging. She also talked to me about how it is so cool because we are in search of the scriptures.
Laurine:We both started this over a year ago. We are on the same page. What are the odds? We are not even doing it every day. Can I tell you what the Holy Spirit, he ministers. The Holy Spirit ministers and is enough. God is everything. It is Him, it is the faith he has given us. He is everything. We can choose to show up and say, yes, lord, anyway.
Laurine:So she sent me that text and then she said to me, because I called her, she said I was ministered to, because I said what specifically ministered to you and she said, oh, it was where Abraham in Romans, paul's talking about Abraham and he said Abraham was almost dead. Well, shocker, that was what I was ministered to this week. And I was ministered to this week and I was planning to speak on faith and that was the chapter that I was in and Abraham in Hebrews is one of the great ones of faith listed and I love that. It says Abraham did not weaken in his faith. That means to me he grew stronger. He didn't start out as a giant of faith. He started out like me, with the mustard seed and then God strengthened him in his faith. I love also in Joshua, where Joshua says at the end of his life I am an old man and I am as strong as I was when I was young. For what? For war and for coming and going. Joshua also was strengthened for war and for faith, for coming and going, and to me I like to think of that. As for coming and entering the throne room, going in and out in praise and worship in faith, with the faith that he's given me, I'm just as strong as a youth for spiritual warfare. I can stand in faith and I have really needed that desperately in this season.
Laurine:There are many things that are turned upside down in my life right now with my identity. I have mentioned before Breathe in Him ended. We recently left our church. After 17 and a half years. I have this business transition. What am I doing? What is my purpose?
Laurine:It is taking a lot of showing up in faith. The tiny amount of faith that I have to say today it's enough. Today it's enough to minister to my family. Today, it's enough to love my friends, even though, if you're like me, you know often that doesn't mean in a tangible manner. It means from afar, it means in prayer, it means present moment. It means present moment To show up to my present moment life and say, yes, lord, I will trust and obey you, I will trust that you will make my path straight, I will not caretake. I will take care. I will not manage others' emotions or lives. I will minister to you first, you first in the throne room, and then I will obey you and do what you are asking me to do.
Laurine:I think I might have shared last week, but I can't remember with passion and purpose the revelation that our first ministry is our passion. Our purpose needs to be first and foremost to love God. Then we receive His rest, we receive it for ourselves and then we get to serve and love others. We are poured out as we receive the ministry of the Lord, god ourselves. That is where our passion and our purpose flow. Out. Of the last two podcasts were our passion and our purpose flow out of the last two podcasts?
Laurine:We're on passion and purpose, but if we're not receiving first that present ministry in faith that we are enough, that he is enough, that he is bigger than our circumstances, that he has healed our diseases and redeemed our lives from the pit, that we may not see the physical manifestation in this life, just as it says Abraham and the other saints listed in that Hebrews faith chapter, it says they didn't see the answer to their faith. But you know, god is eternal and that sounds like so much mumbo jumbo sometimes, I think. But the reality is Jesus said to know God is eternal life. Eternal life is to know God. And then Jesus also said the kingdom of God is in your midst.
Laurine:We pray to our Father, our Abba Father, in faith, knowing that he has loved us so much that he gave his only son and that we can pray in the name of Jesus. We can boldly approach that throne of grace. The Lamb is in that center of that throne and we can say Abba Father, I have enough faith to say I have nothing and I can receive from you, lord Jesus Christ, by the power of your Holy Spirit. I'm a joint heir with Christ. I am a joint heir with Christ. I'm seated with you in the heavenly realm. I can receive that by faith, even though right now everything in me cries.
Laurine:I cannot do it, I am not worth it, I am not enough. What am I doing with my life? I think a lot of women my age, from what I have noticed talking to some of my friends is that there is this wrestling. What is my purpose? Am I enough? I've had these dreams and visions. Are they going to come to fruition? What's of you? What's not enough? I've had these dreams and visions. Are they going to come to fruition? What's of you? What's not? How do I make the most of the mundane? Is it truly in the mundane that we can walk with Jesus? Well, I want to say yeah, yeah, and we need to continue to learn not to give away ourselves wrongfully for the sake of others, but rightfully to the Lord, god Most High in faith. When to say, I need to not answer, that, I need to not do that. I need to show up here or show up there, just like Jesus did. And so that is my word on faith today.
Laurine:Do you have the faith of a mustard seed? Do you have that much? Well, guess what? That's plenty, because we can expect nothing of ourselves and everything from God. It's enough, it's enough to say Lord, take this tiniest mustard seed of faith and grow it. Grow it. It takes time, it takes time. It takes time. It takes time.
Laurine:I don't know how long it takes a huge mustard tree to grow so that birds can nest in the branches, but I do know that in the scripture we look and we see a lot of waiting. We see a lot of waiting. We see a lot of waiting. In fact, I used to have a lot of problem with all those greats in the faith chapter, because they were sure human, they sure looked crappy, they all looked like they were not good people starting out.
Laurine:Well, most of them, and it's because they had to grow in their faith. They had to exercise those human faith muscles that had been given to them by God and say, yes, I want to show up, I want to grow in the faith, and that's what I want to do too. I want to have grace for my humanity and faith, to know he's one at all, he's Jehovah Tzidkadu, he's my righteousness. He won it all on the cross. I can do no more other than say, yes, lord, show me, teach me, instruct me. I do have the faith for that, I do have the faith for that.
Laurine:So, lord, for each one listening, I pray that you would increase their faith. I pray that you would give them the faith to say, yes, lord, fill me with your spirit, give me an increased desire to seek you. Thank you that you promise I will find you. I need passion, I need purpose, I want a hunger and thirst for you. Please, lord, would you give that to us? Will you give that to me. Would you give us the strength to just do the next thing, the next moment of present ministry of love to you and love to others? I pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.