The Importance Of Hearing & Following Holy Spirit Guidance, Every Sacrifice Matters To Him, It Really Does.

If I may share a brief testimony with you today, 10/31/2023. I little bit ago I attended a conference in Nashville/Brentwood. It was powerful, insightful and a mighty refreshing to my body, soul & spirit. It was just what I needed in that moment in my life. I was shown weeks in advance to start gathering items to place in a "thank you, hospitality gift ensemble" to bless the ministers of this conference. I kind of had an inkling to bake challah bread but I dismissed it until ...  I believe it was the day or 2 before going to the conference and I had this heavy nudging to bake challah bread. Challah bread is not some easy 1, 2, 3 and then it is done type of making bread. You have to prepare the dough, let it rise, punch down the risen dough, roll into ropes, braid the bread, let it rise again then place egg wash on top and sprinkle with sesame & poppy seeds, then you bake it. I was shown to make a round loaf and then a regular loaf braided. You do get 2 loaves of bread out if the recipe. I was on the hunt to discover a new way to braid and make a round loaf to try and make. I found it and, in this recipe, you make 6 equals in length ropes and take 3 places of them on the baking sheet, then weave 3 the opposite direction with the 3 already in place. There is left over in 4 directions, and you braid these tails of the bread and then tuck them under the dough and that creates the round loaf of bread. This is kind of funny, this dough requires about 8 cups of flour (I used bread flour) and at 1 point you just keep incorporating flour into the dough and somehow, I had a fight with flour that seemed to get everywhere in the kitchen. Think of a light dusting over items in the kitchen. I had to clean it all up. I was using the regular mixer attachment as this was happening and then switched to the dough bread kneading attachments and that seemed to reduce flour getting here, there and it seemed like everywhere that day. I baked the 2 loaves of bread and trusted Holy Spirit to bring with me this unique host gift to a ministry. I wrapped it up and place it separate from the other items with a short note stating Holy Spirit had me bake this in the event they all wanted to partake in communion while the conference was going on. I did my part in all of this as Holy Spirit nudged me to do.

The first night of the conference I found the kindest contact person I had been communicating with via email prior to the conference and gave her the gifts for their team/ministers. I thought nothing about it once my portion was done. I received an email thanking me since they had some of the baked goods, I also tucked in with everything else. They did not have time to go to dinner that night and so they enjoyed some of the items in the gift set and was going to give the thank you note and everything else to the main minister the next day. It was mentioned that someone suggested they did not do communion and they wanted to. Imagine that, Holy Spirit truly does know situations and what to do in them doesn't He.

I received an email the other day and sure enough, the loaf of challah bread was used for a group communion. See, no matter how odd or unique a nudge from Holy Spirit may be follow His guidance for others will truly be blessed with the follow through okay!

This actual conference I received a prophetic word from one of the lead people in the prayer team while standing in line to get a book signed by a prolific author. They kept mentioning how they saw the color green around me and spoke about it. You may think to yourself no big deal, but it was. That evening unbeknownst to me the main platform spoke about the color green. I was on a mission to find this person to tell them the prophetic word spoken was then spoken on the main conference stage, imagine that! I found this person the last day as I was leaving. They were outside praying for a person that had a curvature of the spine and as I was waiting, I could actually see the back straightening out. I briefly shared with them how I was witnessing the power of God with restoring this person's back and then I shared about the color green they spoke over me. Apparently, the green cape is pioneer covering.

One more experience I still need to somehow connect with another author/minister for further insight let me share. There was a younger in age prophetic person that I met a few years back in Gatlinburg for a retreat I attended. I knew then this person was honest, and truth came forth from them. I was thrilled to see them ministering at this conference, so I bought a book of his and waited in line for him to sign it for me. The night before there was a mighty move of Holy Spirit, and he released a word about dreams and things of that nature that people were going to experience. No dream but it was somewhere between 3am-4am this happened to me @ the hotel. I had on a pair of lightweight walking type of socks on, and I woke up with my right foot right big toe burning sensation. Almost like my big toe was on fire if that makes sense. I removed the sock and eventually it dissipated and subsided. I felt led to share how the word he released had this happen to me. You will never believe his response ... the exact thing with same foot and big toe happened to him as he was preparing to come to this conference. He was going to seek out further insight from one of the other prophets about the meaning of this.

As Holy Spirit leads me maybe I will share a bit more at another time.

Sorry, I did not take a picture of the round loaf of challah bread I baked.

I Am Ready To Share Now ...

I week ago, on Saturday 10/7/2023 I had a lovely day filled with peace and joy. The weather was beautiful, and I started my day out early. I had to be at an appointment around 9AM and then I went into Franklin & Brentwood. I found a really good pair of walking shoes and at that establishment in Franklin they actually did a 3-dimensional foot measurement. Amazing. They showed me how to tie the shoes a certain way so as to not let the shoe be loose around the ankle area. I followed their example when I got home and tied my other pair of walking shoes like they did. It really works.

I went to Trader Joes to get some fresh flowers and fresh eucalyptus. I went to Brentwood to an exercise equipment store to inquire about a certain type of exercise equipment. The manager was so knowledgeable and actually showed me a few tips when using a particular piece of exercise equipment. The model they carry is much more expensive than what I am looking for. They actually are supposed to carry the piece of equipment I want. Not on display though so I will have to go directly to the maker of the equipment to place an order. Oh, the entire day I had the song by Cody Carnes & Kari Jobe "Blessing" on repeat mode all day long.

I get home and never did I realize what was going on in the world. Israel to be exact. I began to watch the news and I kept thinking this is like 9/11 all over again. I cried, cried and cried some more. As it was unfolding, I kept thinking how other human beings could do this to another human being. Including innocent children, babies and the elderly amongst all that they destroyed. Never in my lifetime did I ever think I would be seeing something like this actually happen.

I eventually fell asleep on the couch and then woke up to go to bed. Well, I could not sleep, and I think I then fell asleep around 3AM or so. You know when King Xerxes in the book of Esther and he could not sleep, he asked to see the daily records/journals? That is what I felt to do, and I began to read my journals. So many dreams and prophetic promises yet to be fulfilled. It was sweet re-visiting prophetic dreams and words Holy Spirit spoke to me about. One of those writings in a journal of mine I read about waking up from a dream and it was May 15, 2021. Holy Spirit was speaking to me about Hamas back then. Imagine That! It sort of shook me then and even now since what is actually taking place in 2023.

I had days this past week in which I would just begin to cry with thinking about the horror of one group of people having so much hatred for another group of people that they would actually go forth and destroy the lives of them. I prayed. I cannot imagine the sheer horror in the homes of these families as they were slaughtered. There were times when I just could not watch more news and news updates and had to watch something pleasant like Paula Deen cooking or the yankeeinthesouth videos of their travels. Maybe tonight I need to watch a Doris Day movie or something like that.

October 3rd was the anniversary of my father going to heaven. On that same very day was the first day I noticed the hummingbirds were no longer partaking in the nectar. I still kept up the feeders a few days beyond that in the event there was one that did not begin their journey down south for the Winter months. I cleaned the feeders and began to prune my outdoor plants and it was time to pull out the tomato plants and discard them. Getting ready for Fall & Winter. I am thankful for being able to sit in the sun a few more times this past week. I did put the wind chimes away for the winter also.

A few weeks ago, I went through a powerful deliverance and that was a prayer answered since about 2009. God is faithful and He knew the time and connection I needed to fulfill this.

Today, I was sitting on my back porch and realized the great importance of the tree in the backyard. I wanted it gone in the beginning of the Spring but there is great purpose in this tree. There are berries on this tree and not only are the squirrels enjoying them, but I see birds eating of the berries also. The hummingbirds would rest in that tree while they were here.

I keep praying for the mighty angel army of God releasing His mighty angels watching over and protecting Israel so the testimonies will come forth like they did in other times of need in Israel. I have great faith to wait with expectancy to hear these great testimonies of the enemy not advancing because they saw the mighty angels there and they then backed off or saw the hand of God. That is called holy fear.

I found a beautiful blue colored hummingbird-stained glass type of wind chime today and I will save it for next year. I am keeping 1 or 2 outside through the winter so I can hear the winds when storms or snow stuff might happen.

Do you think I should make some challah bread this week to bless others. I am getting pretty good at making this. Well, it is so similar to the recipe my grandmother used to make. A braided bread but the only difference in the recipes is grandma used sugar and challah uses honey and then sprinkling sesame seed or poppyseed on top before baking it.

I composed this on 10/14/2023 because it took me that many days to feel I was able to write and share about what took place in Israel. I did make challah bread last week and created a braided round loaf to take and bless a ministry @ a conference I attended. I also made the 2nd loaf and put that one in the freezer. This conference in which I attended was one of the most timely and powerful conference I had been to in quite a while. I knew I was supposed to be there, and it was a true time of refreshing and encouragement for my life.

My daughter flew in and spent time with me at the 2 different hotels I booked. She wanted to come and relax and didn't mind at all that I was attending the conference. I did sneak away Thursday night and we went to dinner together and visited. That one church they were holding a few evening services at was way too many steps here there and everywhere it seemed like, I did it the first night but not that 2nd night. I did also meet a few friends, (and my daughter) and we always wanted to go on a particular tour of Nashville probably since 2019 and we did just that Friday morning. We all went on the tour, and I must admit my favorite place to stop on the tour was seeing the old train station. How beautiful, how beautiful the stained glass is. It actually matches the pattern in the floor tiles. My one friend remembered coming to the train station years ago when it was just that and she gave us a few insights about it. I think the tour guide stated the rooms at that hotel are around 300.00 a night. There was also the Hermitage Hotel in which the room rates range anywhere from 500.00-800.00 a night to stay there. When the tour started in the morning hardly anyone was on the streets of Nashville. When we returned from the tour going into Brentwood & Franklin those same streets were then filled with people. They were on those crazy peddling bars; how and why would people even want to drink that time of the day let alone on a peddling bar? Do people have such little regard for their lives that they think drinking alcohol is the in thing to do. Did you ever wonder why some bars refer to the term of liquor as "spirits?" Why would you even want to knowingly partake in drinking something referenced as "spirits?"

Well, that is the update for now.