Counting the Grains Blog
A place to read the heart and soul behind the movement.
Eden
When I think back to The Beginning in Genesis, I see Gods utopia with His human creations. He made Adam and Eve and He loved being with them. Adam & Eve did their thing all day, eating from all the hundreds of trees they had access too, maybe naming a few animals. Some nice work, after which they would meet up with God “In the cool of the evening” for a bit of a get together and chat. Being with Adam & Eve was a joy for God.
Along with the curse came work. Hard work. Adam now had to be ‘doing’ not so fun jobs. He had to do and do and do. He couldn’t just ‘Be’ anymore. We have got to get back to just “Being” with God and stop “Doing” for God. When we simply BE who He created us to be, the work we have to do is fun, not heavy, it’s light. But when we step outside of our identity in Him, we strive and try and ‘do’ for God. He just wants us to come back and walk with Him in the cool of the evening. Being is always better than doing. Work from a place of being enough rather than doing to make you enough. As you Be with Him, find your identity in Him, walk with Him, you become Life to those around you, by just being you.
To KNOW God
Galatians 4:9 says, But now since you KNOW God and have become KNOWN by Him… that word know(n) is the word ginosko in the Greek. One of its meanings is: A knowledge grounded on personal EXPERIENCE. It also has a meaning of the closest intimacy.
It is unfathomable that God KNOWS us down to the hairs on our head, and He thinks about us more than the grains of sand. He truly has encountered us, but has our head-knowledge about God become an experience? Has our KNOWING become an intimate encounter with Him? Perhaps, we, the Gentiles, are more concerned with gaining knowledge as academia. Our culture deeply values this too. The knowing about God is important, but our God is living! Therefore these two; the academia AND the encounter must work together. The head and the heart need to connect.
This is our prayer and heart for Counting the Grains; that we move to KNOWing God by means of experience while also having the revelation through Rhema words that we are KNOWN by Him.
Purging the idols
“Purging the Idols”
In the story of Jacob in Genesis, he works for 7 years for his beloved bride Rachel, but then his father in law tricks him into marrying her sister, Leah. So Jacob served for another 7 years to earn Rachel. I find my heart rooting for Rachel and Jacob. Fast forward to when they finally leave home…Rachel takes the household idols! Whenever I’ve read this, it feels like my head spins around five times and in my mind I’m yelling, “Rachel! What are you doing? Whyyyy?!” Although we could speculate, we will never understand fully why she did that. What the scripture is certain of is that they are hidden and in secret.
In the past, idols looked like statues that were worshiped and bowed to, whereas nowadays in our culture it’s important to recognize that idols may be much less obvious and subtle. For Rachel, it seems like she got stuck with what was comfortable to her. What have we become so comfortable with, that we are neglecting to recognize it as an idol or replacement for our God?
Reflecting on this past year, our family has been in a season of sanctification. Listen, we have 4 little ones, which fills our time in the best way possible, but at the end of our days, we are ready to relax. This used to look like cuddling up together to watch a show, or scrolling on socials. Like Rachel, I had grown too comfortable with these things in my life that I never even took the time to recognize their influence. Evaluating how we use our time, what we prioritize and what we think about can help us to identify our idols.
Recently, by the kindness of God, our shared Netflix account got canceled. So we chose to step away from vegging out in front of the TV at the end of our days. Socials though were still a distraction and time suck, until a friend shared that she was doing “only socials on Sundays.” I quickly jumped on board recognizing I needed a boundary and a reason! Oftentimes, now when Sunday rolls around, my hunger to space out on social media isn’t there anymore.
Instead of letting culture be the thing that feeds and influences us, we have chosen to better steward our time with the word, conversation, reading, and podcasts. The more we have nourished ourselves with these things, the more we hunger for them. We are in the pursuit of holiness and intimacy with the Father. We are all on a journey and in our own process, but it is essential that we purge our idols and continually evaluate what we’re putting our ears and eyes to, because they affect the meditation of our hearts and thoughts of our minds.
My challenge to you is this: reflect and realign yourself. What are moments or habits that you’ve formed that need sanctifying? How can you better steward your time to better connect with God? Is what you’re hungering for in alignment with the kingdom of Heaven? Finally, give yourself grace in the process; mega changes all at once do not stick, however when we are slow, steady and intentional we will grow.
Don’t give away your relationship
Matthew 28:18-19 All authority of the Universe has been given to me, (As my Father has sent me, so I send you). Now, wherever you go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And teach them to faithfully follow all that I have commanded you. And never forget that I am with you every day, even to the completion of this age.
2000 years ago God took back His authority that He had placed on a few religious leaders and gave it to fishermen, tax collectors and nobodies. But we, in turn, have taken it from tax collectors and fishermen and given it back to religious leaders. Because we wanted a “king” to tell us what to do rather than become who we needed to become and do what Jesus commanded.
There is nothing wrong with godly leaders, men and women of wisdom and five fold ministries, but when the Body of Christ hands over all spiritual teaching, learning and application to a handful of people , we have missed the point. We can’t hand over our responsibility to hear God, or to seek God, to know God and to worship God to anyone else. Not only that we shouldn’t, but ultimately why would we want to? If God, the creator, the beginning and the end is inviting me to sit and eat with Him, be with Him and experience life with Him, why would I send an envoy????
Don’t give away your birthright for lack of desire. We have ALL been called to use the gifts God has given us, to listen for his voice and live in a continual life of Yes’ to his words. It is yours and my responsibility to search, learn , grow, and give. As we do this, the Glory of the Lord covers the earth.
The Living Word of God
Growing up going to church every week, I was taught about the importance of reading my Bible and praying. Unfortunately then, I thought it was just a religious act and reading was not on my list of things I even remotely enjoyed, so I didn’t take it seriously nor invest the time in it. Surely many of you can relate, which is why I’m writing today.
Take any book and hold it next to the Bible. Which one of those is alive and active and living and breathing? Only the word of God! Pause on that for a moment, the word of God is alive and active and living and breathing… (Hebrews 4:12) perhaps just as alive as the breath in our lungs!
The Passion Version continues to expand on this verse in Hebrews by saying it will even penetrate to the very core of our being where Soul and spirit, bone and Marrow meet. The word of God literally has the ability to discern our hearts! And I believe there’s far more power in the Word of God than we can even wrap our minds around! It has the power to heal, create, build, bless and so much more. It’s not a one-dimensional text or feel good inspiration. It is alive.
While we all desire to see God move in mighty ways, to see the Miracles, the prodigals come home, to hear his voice, how can we engage with God if we are not first showing up to be in the word?
It’s not about if you like reading, can understand it all or even have the time to engage with it. This is the foundation of our faith, the basics which we cannot afford to miss or set aside.
My encouragement to you is this, to show up and to be faithful to get in the word! Join a plan or read a Psalm daily- It doesn’t have to be fancy or complicated. It will change you!
The Vision
What is the point and vision for Counting the Grains?
The point of CTG is to learn and practice listening to the voice of God, and to hear what He is saying. To then respond and speak these words over and to other women. God speaks, Life happens.
The vision for Counting the Grains is to have the Fathers words of Life being shared and spoken over women through women by Holy Spirit. To cover the earth with the Words of Life, identity, hope, love and everything else God is speaking over us.
Psalm 15 says……..
1Yahweh, who dares to dwell with you?
Who presumes the privilege of being close to you,
living next to you in your shining place of glory?
The Answer Provided
2They are passionate and wholehearted,
always sincere and always speaking the truth—
for their hearts are trustworthy.
3They refuse to slander or insult others;
they’ll never listen to gossip or rumors,
nor would they ever harm a friend with their words.
4They will despise evil and evil workers
while commending the faithful ones who follow after the truth.
They make firm commitments and follow through,
even at great cost.
5They never crush others with exploitation
and they would never be bought with a bribe
against the innocent.
Those who do these things will never be shaken;
they will stand firm forever.
We want to become the generation of women who replace gossip, slander, insults and harmful words, with words that speak life, bring life and unite the Body of Christ. To be passionate, sincere, whole hearted, trustworthy and to be women who carry His presence and bring life wherever we are.
As we grow, our vision is to have regional meetups for the CTG ladies to get together, eat together, pray together, and encourage one another.
(image AndPan614 Pixabay)