The Blood of Jesus Speaks for Me

The blood of Jesus speaks for me.... And that is enough for me. He has called me redeemed. His blood shed on Calvary so I could live free.

Freedom, to learn what the Lord has in store for me. I was talking to a friend this weekend and he mentioned to me not only is Christ wanting to do surgery but give me a whole new heart. A heart full of a new love a new hope a new redemption. Only Christ can turn a heart of stone into a heart of flesh. A fresh start....

A fresh start is what I have been given to seek and run only after Christ. And throw EVERYTHING that was hindering me off and diligently pursue Christ. The one who fights for me is King.

That is something I am learning the ONE WHO FIGHTS for me is King. KING that means I am called royalty in Christ's eyes. In the Kingdom of Heaven I am who GOD says I am! And that is a daughter of the Most High. I am no longer bound by things that have shaped my heart into ways that haven't been of Christ. Christ loves me and that is enough. I am learning that, this one truth Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so. He has boundless grace and Love for me. Satan accuses and makes claims against me but Christ's love defends me. I can now find life at Christ's expense. He is enough for me. Open heart surgery but more so than that a heart transplant. A heart throbbing after one thing to be kingdom minded. To love others with complete sincerity and rise above the ashes. For Christ has bestowed on me a crown of beauty inside of ashes. To worship Him with everything that is within me. A foundation of hope is what I have been given. No turning back. No going back only moving forward from this moment onward. Seeking the prize running after God's glory and making HIS goodness known throughout the land.

Christ is fighting for me He always has been, He is pursing me from the start. I look at my life and see how FAITHFUL He has been! And how much LOVE He has bestowed on me and lavished me with.... Why? I was so unfaithful to Him at times, cursing His name, stating I was done with Him... Why? Because that is HIS nature is being faithful to people even when we are unfaithful. He is full of LOVE, full of grace and full of mercy. He is wanting people to run so hard after Him they don't care the cost. They don't care of momentary things or people they have lost in this life for Christ is ENOUGH.....His love is so incredible and so tangible. His love is real in this world when everything else seems unreal.

Heart transplant, a heart of stone to a beating heart of flesh.... Living breathing and moving in my life is what God is doing in my life, arising dead things of my heart. Things that have been dead in my heart that He is resurrecting to life....why? Because that is who HE is, He can bring dead things to life. And give that life and life more abundantly, why? Because He loves His children... And I am a Child of God.

I am not my past... I am not what people have done to me.... I am not who my family says I am.... I am a Child of God. A child of the most HIGH. A child who has a King fighting for her, a child who can run into my God's presence any time of the day and make my requests known to Him....And HE will supply all my NEEDS. He will answer me, He will ALWAYS come through. He will take of me. I need to not fear for the same God that created the stars is the creator of me. Redeeming love has been my theme. He is for me not against me, and His plans are still to prosper for He has not forgotten us and He is sovereign over us. He says everything the enemy intended for evil in my life God will work together for my good! He HAS got me so strongly in the palm of His hands and I want to let you all know that, How much God has done in my life over the past 3 months. What may seem impossible to man is POSSIBLE with God! God is to be glorified in my life and HE will be glorified. It is only God that has brought me this far and I am so PUMPED to see what He is going to keep doing, the journey He is going to take me on!

He has got me and nothing is impossible for my God. My God will continue to reign victoriously and His plans oh man they are nothing but good for my life! For what kind of God do we serve when we ask Him for bread is He going to give us a stone? He loves to bless His children and EVEN when I was far from God, HE was still guiding me and protecting me, He was there when I had nobody and was nobody. He was wooing me with a quiet gentle love when all around me seemed loud. 

To keep my eyes fixed on Christ the author and perfecter of my Faith... Keeping my eyes fixed on Him and the waves will NOT over take me. He isn't going to let me drown nor will leave me or ever abandoned me. And looking back He was there every minute of my journey and He knew me before I was formed in my Mother's womb. He is for me not ever against me! Unto Him be the glory!

Leading Me Besides Still Waters....

He will make you lie down in green pastures and lead you beside still waters....

Stillness is the current season I am in and let me tell you it isn't an easy one for sure. Stillness to Be Still and know that God is my God. Be Still and the Lord will fight for you....

We hear that so much but how do we respond when we actually get the chance to live it? I am not doing so well honestly trying to be still.

You know my life did a huge flip 2 months ago and my brain is now just starting to catch up and I am starting to feel emotions I didn't even know were possible. And I find myself asking God how do I move on? What are the next steps? Can you do really all that you say you will? To hug me so tightly that all my broken pieces go back together.

It is only through the blood of Christ I am made whole again. Wholeness isn't just an overnight process I am learning but it is these small steps of faith that lead to greater things.

Over a month ago I stepped onto a plane and landed in Canada for 30 days not knowing what the next day or weeks held in store for me... But not once did God abandoned me or not provided for my every need! He has now brought me into the mountains where serenity and stillness is what the land thrives off of. Where Nature echoes its praises back to its Creator. Where the night sky worships the one who created and named the stars....

And that same Creator is the one holding me fully and saying to me I am His beloved. His bride, His Daughter....

A Daughter whose King adores her. Who said I was worth dying for to be made whole, to be restored to be redeemed.....

My heart is anything but still right now, it is starting to feel the shards of glass that have been embedded but cutting so deep they have been stuck there for years. For so long, so long I have tried to put a band aid over areas of my heart that actually require open heart surgery. I want to heal and I am ready. I am ready to hand over my heart to the surgeon who formed me in my mother's womb.

I have started reading a really good book called "Your Scars are Beautiful to God." And first and foremost I HIGHLY recommend this book! It is really crazy to see how similar this author's story is to my own. I literally felt like I was reading my story on the pages of this book. Starting to realize when wounds become scars they have stories to tell. I know I have scars on my body, one from falling down a mountain my freshman year in Bible College, another actually on my arm from a recent stay in my home town, where a rock cut my forearm and left a pretty bad scar on my arm, and then the earliest scar I can remember is one on my thigh where I was at Christian Life Academy in Ohio and I was running in a dress and my Sunday shoes and slipped on the pebbles and skidded across the parking lot. But what about my internal scars? I know I have a lot of those and I am finally starting to see the workmanship the Lord has done in my heart to make those wounds into scars the healing process....

I think back to Bible College when I fell down that mountain, I needed stitches for that wound but instead the Dr. told me to just rinse it out with salt water, it didn't work... I needed stitches and that is actually what I am walking through right now is that the wounds in my heart I need the Healer.... the Great Physician. I need God to come stitch my heart back together, to stitch what was been torn and have Him mend me back together. And PRAISE GOD that He is faithful to do so! Faithful to finish the work He has started.

I am going to be honest today was a very hard day for me, a lot of it was spent in tears... But if anything I am learning that God holds my tears and He cares so deeply for me, that He is close to those whose hearts have been broken and loves His children. Loves.... oh how He loves me. But He also says though the weeping may last through the night JOY comes in the morning. He is for ME not ever against me. I think tears can be such a beautiful thing for Jesus is restoring a crown of beauty on me instead of ashes. I feel God so closely right now, His presence and His strength to help me face each day.

I am learning, learning what it means to be a daughter of the Most High. Learning truly how much God loves me and it is a beautiful thing. He has provided above and beyond anything I dare to imagine or hope for. It has been amazing how much God has provided for me when I truly have had nothing over the past two months except faith and God. To lean on God and the body of Christ....


I think that now is the next step is allowing people to walk beside me on this new journey to allow people to come in and show them my scars, to show them the Healer, the Great Physician... That when they ask how is it I am still standing I can merely reply it is only through the blood of Jesus. The blood of Christ that speaks for me and defends me. To show them hey if God pulled me through this, He can pull you through it. To let them know I finally surrender trying to control my life and gave the pen to God. To show them that Jesus stitched my broken pieces together and made me whole. Maybe my heart is like that of a rag quilt right now, I see the pieces cut but I cannot wait to see the masterpiece, the work of art God is going to stitch together for all to see!!!!

I love you all and I am praying for you readers who ever you may be!

God Bless

Please let me know how you need prayer this week!

For I Am Changed

Harvesting berries it seems so simple but yet can be challenging at the same time...Beauty found in such simplicity.

God has been doing the most beautiful work in my life these past two months, toiling, challenging and straining at times but beautiful. If anything I have learned while harvesting wild black berries in my backyard is this that some of the most beautiful things in life, in my life especially have thorns.

No one likes getting pricked by the thorns and having the skin torn open because a thorn is stuck in the flesh, prying open up the rawness and causing pain.

I think of Jesus while writing this, the crown of thorns He wore on His head, ripping open His flesh so I could live. Thorns digging in His scalp, bleeding... bleeding for me...

Paul's thorn in his flesh how he pleaded with God 3 times to remove it but, The Lord kept it there... Why? Because it takes pain and frustration to produce beauty in the kingdom of Heaven.

Fruit it can be sweet but it can be bitter, while picking these berries I pondered the thought of the Father how every branch that doesn't produce fruit is cut of and thrown into the fire. Fruit it is not only for your enjoyment but the enjoyment of others. I have loved making jam and a couple pies with all the blackberries I have picked but what is more of joy is watching others try and eat the creations.

Life is a lot like blackberries at times moments can be sweet but also very bitter. Life can have its painful thorns, thorns that dig deep in your skin and cause you to bleed... But Christ has gone before me and endured far more than I will ever have to go through. For me to Live is Christ. My life is suppose to be a reflection of the gospel a reflection of the heart of the Father for others. It is only through the Spirit that we can produce healthy fruit, to let others taste and see how good God is in our life...

But Christ, can and will do far more than I dare to ever except or hope for in my life. He is making something sweet out of the bitter, somethings amazing from something I thought was broken. Turning those thorns into purpose, the thorns not so much to be punishment but to protect me from the enemy, who tries to steal the fruit tries to take what God has given, but the enemy is done... satan has lost and will continue to lose in my life and My GOD has WON. And the Battle is already won, my soul is secure found in the hope of Christ, I will walk my life for only the gospel. God is doing an amazing work and I am so excited to see what He is going to keep doing.

Knowing these thorns weren't ever to cause me pain but gain, gain for the sake of Christ. Gain to point others to the true gardener, the cultivator of my heart and faith. To point others back to the sake of the gospel the dying to self to gain Christ fully and more abundantly. To show others there is another side and I am standing on that, that the ONLY way we will overcome is by the BLOOD of the lamb and the WORD of our testimonies. I count it all as a loss for the sake of the gospel. What am I willing to give up for the sake of the gospel? Family, friends, jobs, my schedule, my idealizations, my plans and my dreams... It won't be easy it isn't ever easy to follow God more and more abundantly. To go where only He leads and no turning back. To say Lord, no matter what the cost to make your name known is worth it. That the thorns I got pricked on in my life, the thorns that made my heart bled are ALL worth it, if people are coming to know the Father. Coming to know and come back the arms of their first love. Knowing my thorns are nothing in comparison to the thorns my beloved Saviour wore to put His crown of glory on me. He took the thorns and the nails so I could live, not only live but live life more abundantly to live in light of who I AM IN CHRIST.

My identity is the nails, my identity is in the blood of the lamb that atoned for my mistakes, my failures, my struggles, my life. I count my life as loss for the sake of the gospel. There is a world and it is broken, it is dark and I am tired of just sitting back waiting for someone else, waiting for something to do the work that God has called me to do. It is true, this world is hungry and people are hungry for Christ, and the harvest is plentiful. If anything I have learned from picking berries is this, that there are SO many wild blackberries but not many people are willing to stand in the sun, the heat for hours to harvest enough berries to make a pie. Not many people are willing to do the labor, but I want to. I have lived my life so much in shame, in chains and in bondage I thought that I couldn't ever change. And that is true I can't change on my own, but with the power of the gospel I can do it, by the blood of the lamb I will overcome and not by my might or by my strength but the Joy of the LORD as my strength. The living and active God dwelling inside of me by the Holy Spirit through faith. The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. It is so easy to simply pass people over because we don't have time for them. I have come to a point where I am so thankful for the past two months. So thankful that my world got flipped upside down, so I could see the arms of the Father and not just see His mighty hand of RESCUE, Redemption and restoration. But see how He can use the most broken pieces, the most thorny parts of my heart to bring Him glory. My life isn't for me to live but for Christ to shine through.

I am excited to see what God is going to continue to do, to keep growing the garden He has cultivated in the depths of my heart, to see how He will keep moving in ways I didn't think He could move. He is good and He has got me so strongly in the palm of His hand. And I am only standing here today only by the grace of God and only by His love.... the Love He had to crucify His own son so I could live, and be surrounded by the Father's love...

All of My Life in Every Season...

All of my life in every season, God is still God and I have a reason to sing and I have a reason to worship...So often we try to put God in a box. Limit Him because we are human. We forget at times how Amazing and Powerful our God is.

We say to Him we don't even know how to move forward. We get stuck in our mind because at times we don't trust Him for who He says He is. At least I know I do that a lot with my walk with Him. I limit Him to what He can and cannot do in my life. I try to control Him and try to control and plan my life to a tee and when my plans don't go according to my way of doing things I get stuck, confused and frustrated. But why? I don't need to. When we try to be the author of our story it doesn't go so well. We try to pick up the pen and write but our writing of our stories end up being scribbles like that of wrote by a 2 year old but when we give God the pen it turns out to be the most eloquent cursive writing, that which you would see of the most beautiful being inside and out.

We try and try and try so hard to control how we think our lives should look. But why? Why do we like control so much maybe it is because we think if we can control we won't ever get hurt in this life. We can guard our hearts so tightly with a white picket fence and not let people in to see the raw, beauty that we fence off so no one can see how many weeds are actually in our garden. To see actually how broken we are as humans. To see the nakedness and not be ashamed of the raw.

Not only do I catch myself doing this to people but to my Lord. God already sees me how I am and yet His love doesn't change for me. His pursuit doesn't change, and His character doesn't change. To see myself how God sees me, to see His heart the True Father's heart. I think it is so easy for us to say Oh God, I trust you to the ends of the Earth, Oh God I want to be full of faith where I am only dependent on you. These are very light words to say but to actually live it out is another thing. To live fully as a dependent Child of God. Depending on Him to meet every one of your needs. It is so easy to say praise you Jesus when you have all "earthly needs" met. It is so easy to forget how desperate we need Jesus daily when you have everything.  But what happens when everything is taken out from underneath you? Where do your feet rest upon when the winds and waves come crashing against you. Will you keep Standing Firm in the Faith. You know about 2 months ago I did a huge study on how many times Standing Firm/Stand Firm in the Bible and I think I wrote out about 5 pages of scriptures not knowing what the month of June would hold for me, not knowing what the month of July would hold for me. But God knew... God knew and He didn't let go of me not once. Never once did He ever leave me all alone but He has always been with me. He knew but I didn't know, and to trust Him with everything and nothing less is much easier said than done. But sometimes it takes the roughest storm to slam us so solidly unto the Rock Of Ages. He is a cleft for me, He is the shelter in the most challenging storm. When literally you have no idea how the storm will pass or see the light of day, but to have that HOPE as an Anchor for the soul.

Standing Firm is so easier said than done, standing firm means to not even let your feet get swayed knowing the Rock is a firm foundation. A foundation which cannot be shaken even when the waves are higher than your head. I think of the past years how much God has provided for me and in those moments when I remember, I forget how God has met me and has taken care of me from my Mother's womb. That He called me according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus, and that He has a plan and a purpose for my life, my pain and my story.

What are we so afraid of when God actually calls us out upon the waters? I know in my own life I feel afraid that I am going to drown but God will NOT let that happen to me. He has got me so strongly in His hands and He will not let His grasp loosen and yeah maybe that took getting everything taken under my feet that I thought were pillars of support. But the one thing that the enemy can never take is my faith. He can't touch who I am in Christ who I am in His great REDEEMING Love. I am starting to learn who God has always been in my life. It isn't just in moments of great joy but also moments of great pain. But I am thankful for everything because it has only brought me closer to Christ, brought me back to my knees in a cry of desperation for the Saviour who can Rescue me, redeem me and restore me. The Lord gives and takes away but we have to tell our hearts to constantly say blessed be the name of the Lord. God knows what our stories look like. He knows what tomorrow holds and the next day and so on and so forth. But we don't know. We can try so hard to hold the pen in our hands and be so busy like Martha in the Bible we miss what God can do in our stillness.

We miss the quiet moments where rest is essential to rest in the green pastures and let GOD lead us besides the still waters. I try to lead myself so often it always ends up in not always the ways that God wants to lead. But praise God for grace and praise God that He is sovereign even when we are stubborn and have to learn sometimes the hard way. But God is so kind and compassionate that He does work ALL things out for the good of those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose. But we have to TRUST Him and lean only on Him and nobody else. To take into account His Word has to be our authority above all else. To lean on Him and seek boldly and diligently after Him. To rest in Him...

I know my thoughts are all over the place tonight but that is ok... That is something I am learning also right now is how to rest and I am not talking about taking a nap. But to truly rest in who GOD says He is and to rest knowing that it is ok to not know what tomorrow holds but to rest knowing I have God who knows. That nothing is impossible for Him, that same God that parted the Red Sea is the same God that is holding me. I have witnessed numerous miracles happen even since June and God will continue to do that. Sometimes we forget who God actually is, and He isn't just some miracle working God that was relevant to the Biblical Times. But He is the living God who still does miracles today and is still at work if we allow Him to do exceeding and abundantly things than we could ever dare hope or imagine to happen. But we have to let Him have full control and step out of the way to let God move and work. Don't get me wrong it's not an easy thing to do to let go of everything we hold so tightly onto and let God work in mighty and mysterious ways.

I need to not worry for God has got me so strongly in His gracious grip, holding me with His nail scarred hands. Unto God be all the GLORY and Honor forever and ever. And I will build my life upon His love for it is a FIRM foundation. So Spirit lead me where my TRUST is without borders and let me walk upon the waters wherever God would lead me and help me to never lean on my own understanding but if I am to lean let it be on the Cross and my flotation device in the storm keeping my eyes EVER fixed upon Jesus the Author and Perfecter of my faith, who for the JOY set before Him, HE endured the cross scorning with its shame so that I could live and live life abundantly in the Riches that Christ has in store for me.

Blessings
(Also let me know how I can be praying for you!)

Makayla Chalee

Grow Through What You Go Through

To walk by Faith...1 Corinthians 5:7.

How easy of a saying that is, and how many "Christian Merchandise" has that saying upon it but what does it truly mean?

But it's a completely different story when your faith is all that remains, when trials and hardships come will you still stand on the Solid Rock for your comfort and your support. Spurgeon said "I have learned to kiss the waves that slams me unto the Rock of Ages."

Do we kiss the waves when trials come or are we full of doubt and fear. Are we fearful when we finally realize we are not in one ounce of control of how our lives are going to roll out. That God is the one in control?

I was talking to a dear friend of mine last night and we were talking about fear and what it looks like. And realizing that we have nothing to fear for who is in greater control. That we don't have to fear what life throws at us because we have that firm foundation of who is in ultimate control. It's so easier said than done, it so easy to say oh I 110% trust God, but then what happens when the Dr. gives you bad news, or the police shows up at your door with a horrible accident report, or when a mother is bleeding heavily crying in agony and pain at the sight of her dead baby, or when you get the news one of your best friends is in Jail, or drugs have taken over the ones you love, or when you have no idea how you will meet rent and food this month, or when the people you loved and trusted the most end up stabbing you in the back... Where do you feet rest then? We are so quick to say I trust God yet when tribulations come we get angry with God. We get angry with Him, why we lost that job, why we lost that child, why we married yet, or why we don't have healing, why we lost all of our friend, why we cry ourselves to sleep at night.

We think that when we accepted into the Christian life it was going to be a piece of cake and full of skittles and rainbows...My goodness if I have learned anything over these past 10 years it hasn't been like that, there are such joyous happy moments in the walk with Lord but there are also painful hardships each of us have to endure. Ecc. 7:14-(NIV) "When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore no one can discover anything about their future." We don't like bad times why because it hurts, it shapes our character it refines us... No one likes going through the refining process, it takes pain and agony and frustration to create beauty in the Kingdom of Christ. Romans 5:3-5NIV-"Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, HOPE. And hope doesn't put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us."

An old bible study leader years ago told me to not ever waste your suffering. And I had no idea what that meant, but I am starting to realize that it means GOD is worthy of praise IN and out of every season you face in your life. A beautiful song I have been listening to lately is "Sleep in the Storm by Unspoken" and one of the lyrics is that how can you except to grow with out rain? You can't you can't grow without storms in your life. And you get to choose how those storms will effect you will it make you bitter or will it make you better? You can let God have ultimate control or you can try to take control and see how well that will work out for you.

Romans 8:28 NIV-"This we know that the LORD works ALL things together for the good of those who love Him and have been called according to HIS purpose." Do we trust God as much in the dark times as we do in the moments of pure light. It is so easy to see when the lights are on but in pitch black it can be hard. I think of like the trust fall exercises you do in leadership classes, how much more does God do that to us? Where He keeps whispering to us " Do you _____ Trust me." He is a good God and He is worthy of our Trust why? Because He knows how our story is going to end. He knows what He is doing, and He is the AUTHOR of our story not ourselves, God knew us before we knew Him. He says our days are written in the book of life, that we are inscribed on the palms of His hands, that our days are numbered and that He knows us inside and out more than any human can ever know you here on earth.

Perseverance isn't easy because we get tired, we stumble, we fall... but sometimes it doesn't matter how hard you fall but how you rise after the fall. Micah 7:8NIV-"Do not gloat over me my enemy for though I have fallen I shall Arise." I know it's been forever since I have written a blog and these past two years have been very challenging and hard but my goodness has God ever remained faithful to me despite the times I remained faithless. I think for so long I sat in the mistakes I made and chose to sit in the mud instead of rising and walking in my worth and my identity in Christ and who HE states I am, and who I am because of the blood that was shed on Calvary.

You know even in my current season in life it isn't an easy one, it is one of the most painful I have been through but Praise God almighty I am not walking alone. HE is so close beside me He has blessed me so incredibly much with so much support right now. So many people are praying for me I am an incredibly blessed woman. And if God is fighting for me then I have nothing to fear. And I don't need to fear because what can the enemy do to me nothing, for my soul is secure in the Blood of the Lamb. The Lord is fighting for me I only need to be still... 

May the Lord bless you and Keep you, keep always fighting the good fight of faith!

Blessings

Makayla Chalee