I bring you today Rabbi Curt Landry as he breaks down the importance of this season post Passover & Resurection Sunday until Shavuot/ Pentecost and why it is important for us to be mindful. There are amazing things awaiting you in this season of increased awareness.

​Watch below for the plan! ​

​Leviticus 23:15-16 NLT
The Festival of Harvest 15 “From the day after the Sabbath—the day you bring the bundle of grain to be lifted up as a special offering—count off seven full weeks. 16 Keep counting until the day after the seventh Sabbath, fifty days later. Then present an offering of new grain to the Lord.

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Count down the Omer Notes
Passover - Shavuot 49 Days
Lev 23: 15 - 16 Yeshua 40 days
During this time Balance Your Emotions
Embrace Change
R. I am seeing change
O. Self - awareness
C. Confess scripture over your weakness
K. Keep focused 
All while you
A. Gal 5: 22-23
C. Confess
T. Time claim outloud Psalm 103 
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We love and appericate a Phrophetic voice, but do not wait to "get a word" from another person. First seek Holy spirit yourself. The Holy Spirit of God lives inside of you and is around you to help you in this life. The Holy Spirit is God's spirit whom he imparted in you the moment you accpeted Jesus as the saviour of your sins. 

Just make time for him! Get to know him. So many say, "well I do not hear from God," of course you don't because you are not waiting, listening or asking by faith. Sit and listen. Walk & listen. Drive & listen. You can still live life and listen. God wants you to talk to him forsure but also make sure you make time to listen and get to know his voice. That is it. You can ask him questions and he will answer just trust by faith. Have a pen and paper handy. Write what comes to you and then go back and weigh it with the Word of God. 

Relax. The more you practise anything the better naturally you will get. Same with developing a realtionship with the Holy Spirit of God. Ask the Father for help, He will give it. Just be ready to recevie it and use it. It may not even look like what you think it should. 

I love what Wanda Alger had to say recently on challenging US on "Are We People of the Spirit or Not", head on over to read or watch her video. She has many on time points about the Holy Spirit and YOU during these troubled times and difficult climate we are in. Her video is an eye opener.  

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​Want to be encouraged? Check out my book on miracles I have personally seen & the messages Jesus is saying to YOU through them! You too can see the hand of God supernaturally in your life.

You see this onion? This is onion is from my kitchen. It was not used by me yet in some delicious way. One day I saw a cute green sprig coming from it. I just let it be to see what would happen. Before I knew it, it grew really long. 

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It was preprogrammed by God to bioloigically grow on it's on. To me that is amazing. The growth was set on auto pilot basically by the creator of the onion. Every plant on the planet is set to do the same. WOW, if you ask me. It makes me think about human growth. We are always growing physically, mentally, spirtiually. Well most of us anyway, giggle giggle. We are growing either in a good way or bad. 

This onion was not given  the ground, water & at first no sun light, yet it started to grow with endurance. Why? It was created to do so. It did what it was supposed to do. When you grew as a child did you ever tell your bones or hair to grow? No! Growth is a natural accurance regardless of the environment. Sadly if put in the wrong environment, any living thing including people may not grow right. However, even then something miraclous might happen. Have you ever seen an inner city kid who had all the odds stacked agianst them yet they sought on their own a better and won!

Or a little flower in the mist of a big city grow up from within the cracks of the sidelwak? Growth in most situations will happen in some form or another.

Look at Romans 5:3 AMP ​3 And not only this, but [with joy] let us exult in our sufferings and rejoice in our hardships, knowing that hardship (distress, pressure, trouble) produces patient endurance.

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No matter who you are God cares about your growth. Do you care about your growth? I hope so! I took this onion since it was fighting so hard to grown and planted it in my little Victory garden I am getting ready for spring. I just had too! I was enjoying wacthing it grow and wanted to tenderly care for it. Since I did take that time, guess what, it might yeiid me more onions to enjoy fruitfully! 

So where are you? Do you find yourself in a new place you are not used too as I was recently? Sometimes God's plans do not look like ours and we find ourselves in situations or places we never thought we would be in but you have a choice. To keep resisting the environment and GROW a cold potentially non fruitful heart or GROW an embrace your new situation and actually bloom! Do you see those beautiful flowers up there in the other picture that are growing in a not so ideal place for flowers, yet they grew another reaching towards the sun growing in the direction of it creator. End result, beautiful leaves that bless all who look upon them as they walk by and give glory to God in doing so. Did you know God cares for the flowers? How much more does he care for you in your growth? 
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You were made in the image of God and you are created to bring him glory in your own unique image. 

Will you grow to glorify your maker NO matter where you are? Will you have a growing mindset you can choose!

Want to be encouraged? Check out my book on miracles I have personally seen & the messages Jesus is saying to YOU through them!

Want to read amazing stories of how God is intervening in the lives of people in Asia? I always love a good tesitmony! Not only does it give God glory with the story but it opens our eyes to what is going on in other places of the world and it ministers to our hearts as well. 

Let God stir your heart for some who are truly in need—thousands of children living in slum conditions in Asia. In this book, real children share their real stories of need and how our loving God intervened to redeem them with His love.

You will be astonished as you read how God is powerfully moving in hearts right now.  Read about an abandoned girl who found hope at the end of the railroad tracks, a young boy who escaped after years of forced servitude, and many others whose lives have been redeemed. You'll be captivated by this powerful move of God as K.P. Yohannan leads you on a journey through the slums and villages of South Asia into the hearts and lives of these precious children.
 
This book is written by a ministry leader who leads Gospel For Asia. 

Today I have invited Shellie to speak to us about beauty in the waiting. Here is Shellies story. 

   Many of us when everything around us seems to fall apart much like 2020. Want a hurry up and fix this quickly Jesus fix! We are all guilty of that at some time in our lives. After all we are human and we desire good things over the rocky mountain climb.  However, sometimes when we rush things we miss the beauty and growth, that takes place in the waiting. I write this from a first hand experience. I would like to share straight from my heart about a journey of waiting that still has not ended! I promise it's laced with grace, hope, and beauty.   So grab your favorite warm drink and join me while I share what God has for you to hear.
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Five years ago on March first. I checked into a local surgical center to have an arthroscopy on my  right knee for a torn meniscus tear. I had slid in a mud puddle taking the trash can to the road the day after Christmas. I did a double flip. It wasn't a pretty sight. It should have been such an easy surgery and recovery! I should have walked out not needing my crutches. That was not what happened though. About ten minutes into the procedure I aspirated stomach acid into the base of my left lung. This caused an injury to the lining of my heart as well.I would not learn that till the next day. I was rushed to the local hospital to be admitted for observation.I not only had a bum knee. Now I have chemical pneumonia and pericarditis of the heart. Pericarditis is caused when fluid or blood build between the sac around the heart and the muscle. This can lead to restriction of how the heart beats and the blood flows. I spent seven days in the hospital. Sent home way worse than I did when I arrived. I was not able to take more than ten steps due to not being able to breathe. I went from active wife, mom, pastor's wife, and children's church administrator. Completely dependent on someone helping me  do everything. Spending my time on my chase that I am writing to you from today! This went on for a little over a month and I had to be hospitalized on April seventeenth I had my first major heart surgery. This was to drain the fluid by cutting a square in the heart to drain the fluid that was keeping my heart from pumping properly. They drained what would be equivalent to three two liter drinks of fluid off my heart.  The same week I had the heart surgery I was scheduled to attend the Women Of Joy conference in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. I attended two days after being released. God would not allow me to backout. I was blessed so very much by attending. It was there when God whispered to my heart... While Natalie Grant was singing Clean. Daddy (Father God) whispered to my heart “daughter hold on because for now my answer is no.”

I remember sitting there worshiping in my wheelchair tears streaming down my face. Telling my Daddy I would trust Him would use me for others to see Him! Five months later I would be transported from the local hospital to one of the larger hospitals in Charlotte. I would have a thoracotomy to have major heart and lungs surgery! My whole world had totally been rocked once again. I have yet to totally recover from all of this. Since along the way we found out I had SLE Lupus and it was now attacking my heart and lungs. My body was fighting to kill itself. There is something about losing all that you once knew as normal. When you spend time sitting, you have more time to focus on things we often neglect with the hustle and the bustle of  the day. I found spending the quiet early mornings with my Daddy was my favorite time of the day. I found that I couldn't wait to pick up my Bible to study the book of Psalm. David's life seemed so much like mine in many ways. I couldn't wait to see how God showed up for David next. Each battle David fought his Daddy was there and even though sometimes those answered prayers came in time and guess what it wasn't David's time it was his heavenly Daddy's time!                    I remember clearly crying because I couldn't go to church! I was too sick to be in crowds yet my heart longed for the fellowship, worship, and being fed God's Word in person.

​The first Sunday I got to attend I remember going to my closet to find something to wear. Months of wearing pj's and lounge clothes it would feel good to dress cute again. I remember picking my outfit so excited to get dressed up to find the next four outfits I chose no longer fit! I remember sitting on the floor of my closet with tears in my eyes, telling my Daddy it didn't matter if I had to wear my PJ's to church! Nothing was going to stop me from going! It wasn't about what I wore. I wasn't going to be seen. I was going to worship Him and I would choose joy in this season! It's a privilege denied to many! I didn't want something like a size to ruin that for me! That was a huge thing for me. growing up till I had my first daughter. I had struggled with an eating disorder! Now to say it's just a tag is huge for someone who has gained quite a bit of weight due to my daily medicines. My Daddy (Father God) reminded me, I am fearfully and wonderfully made in His image! He loved His creation, He was not taken back by a change in sizes.

He loved me for me His daughter and He thinks I am beautiful even when I can not see it for myself. Choosing joy in a season of pain is not always as easy as it sounds. It has to be a choice we make when we open our eyes each and every morning.

There are and will be days that make it harder to choose but again it is a choice. How we see things and try to find the good even in the hard days. A year or so back I spent 26 days in the hospital, just to be told what we already knew. However, I lost my mobility. I came home with a walker and needed a wheelchair if it was going to be a long distance walk to get there. I wasn't sure how I felt about either at first. I prayed and asked my Daddy to please not to let these things be permanent! I worked with kids and I didn't want them to be scared or worried. I already knew they were upset because I had to be out for being sick again. Instead of Him changing my situation He showed me ways to be my eccentric self with them and make them look less scary. So I wrapped feather boas around my walker and I painted the back of my wheelchair with polka dots and a flamingo. I painted I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me! I absolutely can do that and more when He is on my side and allow Him to lead each and everything I do! The kids I worked with loved it! It helped them to feel comfortable to ask questions. It gave them hope that things would get better. They prayed for me all the time. It taught them what is was like to have faith and God's timing was not always ours.

You learn who your true friends are as well when you have a life altering disease.

​It's hard for some to stick around when you can't no longer do a lot of the things you did before. God taught me through the heart breaking times of truth, that a true friend loves at all times! Not just when it's convenient for them. It's the ones who come set beside your bed and have tea with you and are okay to just hang out and talk and are not affected by the fact if you go to the American Girl store together we are going to need to take a wheelchair. Instead she makes you feel like you are still you even though you have really lost so much. That is when you are so very thankful for the true friends and not the fly by night friends. God will give you what you need, trust Him in finding that for you, when you are faced with an unmovable mountain.

There are really only two choices in our attitudes. We can choose joy, hope , bitterness, or anger. I choose joy and hope! I see things so much differently than I once in my life. Crazy thing is this is not my first devastating event in my life. However, this has been the most life changing other than the day I gave my heart to Jesus! My home is much different now. My family has been just as affected as I have been. They have chosen to be hopeful and joy filled through this season as well.

Things will never be as they were before my fall, because we have changed hearts.

• We see the beauty of an evening setting on our patio watching the rabbits and birds.
• Time sitting around the dinner table laughing and enjoying each other's company.
• We have found that the more we keep our hearts and eyes centered on Jesus, a healing and changing takes place that is like no other. It's not a physical healing. Rather a healing of the heart. It renews our hope each and everyday for what stands before us.    

This new life of mine requires lots of slow days that require me to slow down and hold myself accountable for how I take on each new day. The waiting showed me beauty in the littlest things. Most of all I have the best relationship I have ever had with my heavenly Daddy and that is the most important thing ever!   In closing this year has been one of our hardest. I have been in and out of the hospital. about two weeks ago I had to be taken because my breathing had gotten so bad I could hardly walk 10 steps and I would be out of breath so badly I was gasping for air. I was admitted and again transferred to a larger hospital! Two echo's of my heart showed pericardial restriction. Another major heart surgery may be inevitable. This surgery was very risky and dangerous! The recovery time would be grueling. It's a rare surgery not performed unless it is a last resort! We reached out for people to pray! The response was overwhelming the people I didn't even know lifting me up in prayers!  I know that those prayers were heard because when the cardiac MRI was ran all they found was a pericardial effusion! You are talking about a thankful girl! I was beyond happy and blessed! My Daddy had touched my heart and taken that away! I can almost tell you when! Because the night before the echo I was awake and I had been praying and I felt something in the way my heart was being change! I never thought anything of it till now. I know that was my Daddy's touch, He said yes to that request! There was still a no coming. I still came home running unusually high fevers and oxygen. The answer was still clear no for now as I sat there as they explained everything to me I feel the tears well up in my eyes.I wasn't mad or hurt. I was thankful because it could have been so much worse! Now we start again with another new for our lives. When gathered around the table with our girls, for Thanksgiving. We all agreed all though 2020 has been different but we were blessed! We are still here to celebrate each other, Jesus's Grace was so undeniably good, our family grew by two my oldest and her husband won custody of our first grandson they had been fostering for a year and she gave birth to a beautiful new baby boy! We both still have our parents and many can not say that.  We have so much to thank Him for there is no time to be anything but joyful and grateful!
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​​If you find yourself waiting in the hallway needing an answer or even healing. Praise Him in the hallway! Find joy in the process even on your hardest days! Because I promise you my friend someone is praying for what you have, believe it or not! Don't let satan sneak in and tell you lies that make you bitter. Someone is watching you I am sure of it. They are watching and listening to how you are handling what has been put in your path. What do they see? Can they see the beauty of Jesus in His child who no matter what wants others to see him through her. Or are they seeing the wordley outlook of anger and bitterness. My friend, life's too short to spend your days like that! I again would not change a thing. I have learned to live intentionally. I don't need to have makeup on to go out or have guest. My house doesn't need to be cleaned to the point it looks like a museum. Make the memories and make them count. After all there is beauty in waiting when you allow God to be the center of it all!            

​Thank you for allowing me to share the beauty in waiting!            

​  ~Prayerfully Yours~ Shellie          ​

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Thank you Shellie for sharing a message with us .

​Follow Shellie Almond Ministries online to get more on the Footsteps of Grace!

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Oh how I love planners, stickers, pens and such. Call me silly but that is ok. They motivate me and bring me joy as I plan or write to do lists, in hopes to be more productive and organized. Lately the Lord has been reminding me the importance of seeds and seeds planting and how important it is for so many reasons in our lives. Galatians 6:7 7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.  I was super blessed to be able to partner with Spiritual Seeds Planner to review their kit during this time of alignment and reminding from God the lessons of sowing and reaping. Let me tell you about it and give you a chance to win one!
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Spiritual Seeds Planner is a planning tool designed to help Christians prioritize living a fruit filled life, guided by the Holy Spirit. The Fruit of the Spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness and Self-Control. (Galatians 5:22-23) The planner uses a gardening theme concentrating on four garden plots – Friends/Family, Self, Community, Vocation/Work. Each month focuses on one Fruit, detailing actions to plant + cultivate + grow.  Actions are planned daily for highest yield. Cute garden themed stickers provide visuals for tracking growth. Unlike any other planner, Spiritual Seeds Planner prioritizes and plans Spiritual growth over daily “to do” lists and activities focusing on growth rather than achievement. 
 

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​What makes it different than other planners on the market:
·       Puts God in charge
·       Inspired, led and powered by the Holy Spirit
·       Based on Scripture
·       Impacts all areas of life
·       Improves relationships
·      Fills life with an abundance of Spiritual Fruit – Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control

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I am so excited to start 2021 off with this beautiful kit that will assit me in sowing well for the kingdom in my daily life. What better way than to use tools  (and support Christian small businesses) that are taliored to the heart of the our Lord in the sucess of our fruitfulness as we shine for HIS glory!

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Once a person comes to know the redemptive gift God has offered humanity through the acceptance of Jesus as their proxy on the cross, what would a person then do next?  Of course, prayer, reading the word of God, and actually learning and desiring life application of the scriptures one reads. Why is this even important? I will share with you a thought-provoking act of obedience out of love.
 
“A spiritual application of the word of God consists to applying it to the heart in spiritually enlightening, sanctifying influences. A spiritual application of an invitation or offer the gospel consists in giving the soul a spiritual sense or relish of  the holy divine blessings offered and also the sweet and wonderful grace of the offeror , in making so gracious an offer and of his holy excellency and faithfulness to fulfill what he offers and his glorious sufficiency for it, so leading and drawing forth the heart to embrace the offer and thus giving the man evidence of his title to the thing being offered. And so a spiritual application of the promises of the scripture, for the comfort of the saints, consists in the enlightening of their minds to see the holy excellency and sweetness of the blessings promised and also the holy excellency of the promiser and his faithfulness and sufficiency, thus drawing forth their hearts to embrace the promiser ,and the thing, promised,” (The Works of President Edwards,1808, p. 156 )
 
The scripture is text written to declare the giver, who he is and what he gives.

1. God is love. 1 John 4:16 (NJKV) God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Consider, the root word of ahava is "ahav." The term ahav in Hebrew means, "to give." True ahava, true love, is more concerned about giving than receiving. ... Consider that the Hebrew word "ahava" is not an emotion but an action. (Google Dictionary)
2. The very nature of God, the God that is pure love, is to give to you.  No one else has the right to say they are love.
3. That love never stops and it is impossible because according to Revelation 22:13 (NKJV) I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” So, God is everything in time and outside of time. No one else has the authority to say they are the beginning and the end.
4. I would think one would trust the God of all creation and what he has to say. Psalm 103:2-3 (NKJV) Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases. But God continues to bless us, and forgive us, and heal us, and restore us, and renew us, and deliver us. Did you see that. Forget not his benefits? Why would you not want to remember his benefits or how to obtain them?
5. To desire understanding of the gift you have been given it will require to read and not only read the scripture but obediently live and apply it daily. John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.  This love is an ongoing circulation never ending. Once you accepted his son the only thing, he desires back from you is love for he is love, and that love comes from the grateful obedience of the heart to follow his commands.

 
Spiritual application is truly obedience that flows in a cycle of never-ending love between you and God. Because if you have said yes to His gift of salvation and that very love is now living inside of your heart, I could assume the God of love who made you in his image. (So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Genesis 1:27 ( NKJV))  has given you his desires of you in his Word and if you love God back freely, why would you not apply what you read. In doing so you are giving back love to the creator of love, love. He is a great Father who promises and lavishes his benefits now and forever more in the life to come.