Sally Hanan's Blog, page 2

How to Be Seated in Heavenly Places

We talk a lot about heaven and earth and how we can be either spaced out in heaven enjoying worship or digging into the realities of daily life on earth. We wonder how to stay living in two worlds–how to be seated in heavenly places, be in the world but not of it,

and yet be all of Jesus in it.

The kingdom of God is in you. You are a piece of heaven on earth, so you can be in two places at once. It’s like having two monitors open. You’re working on the main one while constantly seeing what’s showing on the other screen and applying it as needed. One is showing you a constant view of heaven’s truth, love, creativity, and direction; and you get to pull it into everything as you go, thereby fulfilling the verse “on earth as it is in heaven.”

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Receiving Graciously

Giving love graciously is easier in many ways;

receiving graciously,

on the other hand,

requires both humility and acceptance,

love of oneself.

 

We all feel joy when we give to others, especially our friends.

Don’t deprive others of that joy when you’re in need, just because you find it difficult to receive.

 

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What Women Should Be

I’m excited about seeing how much culture is changing re the perception of what women “should” be — what they should wear, how they should speak, how confident they should be in company, how intelligent they should reveal they are in conversation, what jobs they should take, what roles they should be limited to…

I think that the more women are proud of who they are, what they are, how they are, and why they are, the faster this will shift culture for the better.

And regarding women and emotions – seriously, people are far worse off when they stuff them. We’re actually the strong ones.

#ownit #bethebadassyouare #rarr #doyourthing #potstirring

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Hitting the Rock a Second Time

The story of Moses hitting the rock a second time for water shows us that you can still mess up big time after spending hours in God’s presence – when you let the screaming fear and anger of people make you lash out too. Moses hit the rock. Thing is, the Rock was only meant to be struck once and the water of life flowed. After that, the Word of life was what would bring forth more living water.

Speak to your rock with the Word of life.

All your lashing out because of what others around you are saying about you, and blaming you for, could cause you to miss anything good that can be found in your circumstances.

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What Keeps Me Going

It’s not inspirational words that keep me going, it’s the spirit and heart shining through the words.

There is no match to sitting with a trusted friend and processing as you speak, and having that person share a different perspective of hope and possibility.

Words, inspirational statements, inspirational conversations — they all come from people who are in a different head space to the one I’m struggling with, and their words form a ribbon of hope and light that I can pull on to get myself out of any mental darkness I step into.

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Stoopid

Hey you, yes … YOU!

You know that stoopid thing you said today, or that stoopid thing you did yesterday, or that opportunity you were stoopid to miss last week, or those persistent creepy thoughts you have from time to time?

You know what it all means, right?

Yes.

It’s true.

You’re …

NORMAL!

Seriously, every single person in this world goes through the same stuff on a very regular basis.

So stick your chest out and move forward in your amazeballs personhood as the amazing but NORMAL person you are, because none of this NORMALness is anything to fret over. And if you let yourself fret over it, it will stop your amazeballness from shining brightly.

Life’s too short to start getting upset over being a real human being, so start being one and just be you. Seriously, laugh at your flawed self and move on.

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Taking Heaven by Force

If someone posted a craigslist ad about a huge mansion throwing its doors open to the public because the owner had died, and you could take whatever you wanted, hundreds of thousands would show up and go crazy in the grabbing. They’d rent U- Hauls so they could take as much as possible.

When Matthew 11:12 talks about the violent taking heaven by force, it actually means to ransack heaven.

Which begs the question of ourselves–are we ransacking heaven every day, clearing the shelves, grabbing all we can find and assimilating it so we can serve it up to our fellow man?

Fervor and zeal don’t have to mean being loud and monopolizing conversations. It can be about being so passionate about being one with heaven that you can’t imagine functioning without all God has ready to give, so you go after it with determined focus all the time.

It’s ours for the taking.

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Forgiveness Is No Once-Off Event

People talk about forgiveness as if it’s a once-off event. I prefer the term living forgiveness. The thing with pain is that once the shock and raw pain subsides, it starts to only hurt when you’re triggered to remember it. Each time that happens, I forgive the person who hurt me again. And again. And again.

What I do every time fresh pain hits an old nerve is picture myself pushing the person back into Jesus. He knows that person far better than I do. He knows the heart, the motives, the reasoning. I don’t. I only know what went down from my perspective.

What pushing the person into Jesus does for me is that rather than picking up those ties of pain again, I keep them severed. It’s not my job to fix those people. It’s not my job to set them straight.

It’s theirs.

Which is why I repeatedly keep sending them back to the one place where I know they can be fixed and set straight, if they let him.

And then I step back into his heart again myself so I can soak in his comfort until the pain subsides.

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When You Feel Abandoned by God

When you feel abandoned by God because of the hatred and unforgiveness in your heart toward someone, and you feel you can’t reconcile with God because of it…

Nothing is irreversible with God, and you’re now at the doorway into opening your heart to everything he has to give or keeping it closed.

The biggest thing about God is that we think he acts like we do, when all he sees is what he has put in us, all he does is love us.

All he’s ever wanted is for you to let him back in.

When we’re full of shame, we assume he doesn’t want to be near us. It’s actually the opposite that happens–he’s closer than ever, watching, waiting, hoping. And when you’re ready, you’ll tell him that even though you find it extraordinarily difficult to believe, you’ll accept that he loves you unconditionally no matter how much darkness you’ve allowed in, and you’ll give him permission to come back and fill your heart with all of the love and light he longs to give.

The more of his love you let in, the more the darkness will begin to back into a corner, until eventually your whole heart will be full of God’s light and love again.

He understands how much pain you went through to cause you to need that emotional wall of unforgiveness. It’s just that his love is always bigger, stronger, and more powerful than any pain. His love is always more healing than any wall. That’s my prayer for you—that you would accept that he loves you completely, totally, wholly right now, no matter how much the opposite feels true. And once that’s established, you can talk to him more about everything else going on in your heart.

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Assumption after Assumption

People judge all the time, and then they post their judgments online for all to see. Religion, lifestyle, clothing choices — assumption after assumption about people they have usually never spent the time talking or listening to.

Public shaming for those posts, or creating more rules to stop them, is not the answer though. Neither is education, although education surely is one of the greatest gifts we can offer those who simply don’t know (yet).

Personally, I think the best thing we can do in response is to demonstrate the value of experience. Tell your story. Spend time with those you don’t understand. Travel. Listen. Appreciate. Share.

There’s gold in everyone.

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