BLOOM!

Have you ever felt so full of the Holy Spirit that your "glass" was full to the brim, but then before you knew it, your spiritual "glass" was empty; your emotional and spiritual glasses went bankrupt? Nada! Zero! Nothing! I did earlier this year, and it was an experience I have never had before and pray to not have again! Let me summarize it for you:

I had been totally immersed spiritually, emotionally, and mentally with assisting others in preparing for and organizing a women’s faith-based conference for several months. I experienced God’s move in my life like never before - through frequent opportunities for praying with friends through texts, emails, & in person; through God’s healing from 2 broken bones in my right leg during this time; and through opportunities given to me by God to speak prophetically to friends.

After the conference, I felt lost and wondering what I was supposed to do next? Then my husband and I were both sick with a stomach virus (I haven’t been sick in 15 years!) and 1 week later I took him to the ER for bladder issues. What was going on??

At a post-conference meeting, I had a sinking feeling inside of me, like I had given out of energy and everything was closing around me. When we prayed to end the meeting, I thanked God for what he had done for Mom recently, and then my mind was a complete blank. A complete blank! I couldn’t say anything! By the time I got home, I felt like my spiritual account was at “0”, and I just had to get away. It wasn’t so much a type of depression but an emptiness that I couldn’t refill. But I had never experienced anything like that before.

Finally one day, I was asking God to show me something - ANYTHING - to give me some encouragement and direction. The next day I read in my devotional book, Commanding Your Morning by Cindy Trimm, about seeds and how it takes a long time for them to sprout. Just because we don’t see evidence of them doesn’t mean they aren’t there. It takes patience. The author says “We need to believe and speak as if it is coming today but persist in our faith even if it takes decades.” What a reminder and an encouragement!

The next day I saw this on Facebook.

When you are in a dark place, you sometimes tend to think you've been buried.

Perhaps you've been planted.

Bloom.

It was as if the light bulb was flipped on when I read this. My inner spirit rose like a flower reaching up to the sun (or the SON!). This is exactly what I needed to hear as a reminder that there is more than one way to look at our circumstances.

After reading the word “BLOOM”, here is what God gave to me:

When God says to Bloom, he is saying:

Be

Led

Out

Of

Misery (meaning unhappiness, hardship, discomfort, grief, worry, trial, tribulation, calamity, misfortune)

Psalm 40:1-3

I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.

Bloom means a flourishing, healthy condition; the time or period of greatest beauty, artistry, etc.; to flourish or thrive, to be in or achieve a state of healthful beauty and vigor.

This is how God wants us to be. Not in a state of misery but a state of bloom! So when you feel yourself sinking into that depth of despair or that dark place, remember and believe that you have not been buried, but you have been planted. You have been placed in a specified position for God to use you. It takes time, patience, prayer, reading God's Word, and faith that you WILL BLOOM and THRIVE!

He will refill you just as He refilled me!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Rachel