Aghhh, sorry it took me so long to
follow up on my last blog entry! There has been so much happening here! I feel
like I could write a blog a day for a month and still not explain all the
amazing things that God has been doing. So, for now, I will just follow up on
the weeds.

            Last time I
wrote, I told you all about how God was bringing a lot of things up in the
lives of the students and that He told me that He was not finished. The truth
is, there are these weeds that are planted in the gardens of our
hearts and their roots run deep. Most of the weeds were put there by some kind of lie we bought into, something
traumatic that we experienced, or just from the hurts we experience throughout
our lives. The fruit of these weeds are usually some sort of sin or issue that we
just can't seem to shake. And for some reason, we are so distracted by this bad
fruit that we never see the big weed that it's growing off of. Regardless of how
they took root, God wants to pull these weeds up by their roots and replace
them with His truth. I don't think that this is anything new to most of you, so
the fact that these roots are there is not what I am wanting to convey. What I
want to talk about is the difference between trimming the weeds and pulling
them up! 

            How many
times have we had an intimate encounter with the Lord that left us feeling
renewed and free, only to be drug down again by the same thing that we thought
we were freed from? (I know I have many times) You see, during these encounters, God begins
pulling the leaves and branches off of the weeds in order to work His way to
the roots (I think the reason He doesn't just yank the whole weed out is
because He knows we couldn't handle it). But usually we want Him to just stop
there. If we can't see the weed anymore, then it must not exist. Besides it
will hurt way too much to let Him pull up those roots! But if we only allow the
Father to pull the tops off of the weeds, then they will just grow back larger
and stronger than ever. This is why those issues (that we thought we were free
from) come back and rear their ugly heads!  We have to quit being satisfied with a routine
trimming of the weeds in our lives. The Father desires for us to ask Him to
remove the whole weed, root and all, from our hearts forever. God wants to grow
a new garden in our hearts. But in order for this new garden to become deeply
rooted, He must pull up the weeds in order to make room. And as the Spirit of
truth removes the weeds, freedom will come, restoration will come! It can't
help but come, because where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. 

The Lord is not finished with us!
Ask Him what the weeds are in your life (He will reveal them to you if you
earnestly desire to know). Then give Him access to the garden of your heart. He
will not force His way into your garden, He wants you to invite Him in so that He
can set you free. He is a master gardener and He will take a garden that is
full of weeds and turn it into a garden overflowing with fruit; fruit of truth,
hope, joy, peace and love.