Hear and Obey

The LORD had made it clear to me that Edify Daily was about building up the body of Christ. The verse that He brought me to was from Ephesians 4 verses 11-16 . The format that He was showing was we would produce the cards and people would get a set of 23 cards per month (average month has 23 weekdays). They would pray each day and ask God who they were to send the note to. Then, ask the LORD if there was anything specific He wanted them to say in the card. If so, just do it. Hear and speak forth the words the LORD puts on your heart. It was a pretty simple concept.

I was realizing how often I and others hear from the LORD but don’t actually respond or respond fully. Often these are in simple yet very important matters. For example, the LORD puts someone on my heart and I feel like I need to call them. Instead I pray for them but never make the call. Or I am impressed by the LORD to walk over and pray with someone in church but rather than walking over to them, I just pray in my seat. Or the LORD puts it on my heart to give someone $100.00, but I just blow it off.

What does this have to do with Edify Daily or writing note cards. EVERYTHING! Edify Daily is not about writing note cards, it is about putting ourselves in a position of hearing from the LORD and responding. It is about being in the HABIT of daily looking for the opportunities to build others up in the LORD. The writing of the notes helps us do this.

The notes are just the beginning. (I will explain more on this in a later post.)

I obeyed what I was hearing the LORD instruct me to do which was produce the cards. We got the cards and we started writing them. I would find as I would begin praying for the person that often the LORD would give me insight or strange visions for them. Often not knowing what they meant I would not write it. However I would learn later that He was teaching me to just put on paper what He was showing me. It did not have to make sense to me. They will understand now or later. It would be the Holy Spirit working in me and in the person receiving the note.

I would learn to realize that the LORD was really speaking through me to others. God does this on a regular basis. I would get super frustrated because I was hearing the LORD but fearful to act on it. I can’t say that! I was being told to say things that made no sense. The LORD was teaching me to SPEAK INTO PEOPLE LIVES. How awkward this felt. Who am I to speak anything with any authority?

So my notes looked something like this:

This may sound really stupid but as I was praying for you today the LORD showed me a picture of … and explain what He has shown me. I would be amazed as I would get responses back and how it built them up and was right in line with what was going on. Sometimes, I would write the note seal it up then chicken out and say, “I can’t send this”, that is just stupid. Hmmm, wonder what kind of impact it would have had if I just obeyed and did not worry about myself feeling stupid.