Hello Friends,
My personal testimony continued from my last note…
As God awakened and re-educated my conscience about my wrong actions, He also instructed me in learning how to take right actions that were loving, teaching me how to draw my children’s hearts to me. He showed me my self-centered attitudes, intentions and motivations (A.I.M. for short), and taught me how to turn my focus toward others—my husband and kids—to meet relational needs. As I obeyed Him, He educated me about His standard for true righteousness—love. At that time, I didn’t study His Word about love or what it means to be righteous. The Lord simply began the process of showing me how to make things right in my life with my family, making me a loving person and truly righteous according to His Moral Law of Love.
Contrast this experience to when I went back to church many years earlier after having been absent for the first decade of my adult life. I had the mistaken idea that I was coming back to God when I came back to church. And although my conscience was still working against me, I thought I was making my life right again. I was quite satisfied with myself and settled down to “become a good person”, putting on many works that everyone else in my new circle of friends was doing. I couldn’t have been more wrong. None of this made me right with God and nothing about my life was making me righteous. I still continued in my sins while I put on self-righteousness for eight years, but none of my works served to get me any closer to reality in Christ. I was one of the religious lost, but even then God’s mercy reached me and began to put longing in my heart for Him.
When God awakened my conscience and began working in my heart to change me, my previous standard for righteousness was exposed for the lie it was. It was as “filthy rags” alongside God’s holiness. The Good Lord worked in me to bring good relational fruit in my life, and wholeness I had never known before. I’m forever grateful for His merciful grace.
My discipleship process with the Holy Spirit included humbly coming into agreement with the truth God spoke to my heart about my self-centered A.I.M… I had to learn how to repent, receive God’s forgiveness, and change my ways. I began to experience His comfort and assurance that I was on the right path toward Christ’s life, and also experienced tremendous peace about the process even when going through the hard parts of going to the cross of putting to death the deeds of my flesh.
It took me three years to get to the end of the internal struggles with my flesh when I finally held nothing back from the hand of God, but surrendered my life to Him to receive His amazing forgiveness and love. It was January of 1988, while in worship before the Lord, when God’s love flooded my soul and changed the ground of my heart. He effectively transferred His standard for righteousness into me, forever making me a “new creation” just as He promised in Scripture that He would do, “I will imprint My laws upon their hearts…” (Hebrews 10:16). Deep gratitude became a part of the new me. Praise and worship became a new lifestyle activity, while God’s love continued to flood my soul and make my life whole.
The Lord truly rescued me from my fleshly struggles, set me free from all strongholds I had carried my whole life, and made life in obedience to Him so much easier. In fact, His love empowered me to do everything that was morally and relationally right and good, and He began to give me faith for all the desires He had placed in my heart that He wanted to help me bring to fulfillment. I’m so grateful the Lord marked the day my life was forever changed by His love, but even more grateful He marked my heart—imprinting it with His love.
Have you experienced God’s empowering love in your heart? Do you struggle with doing the right things in the right way? Have you tried to put on an appearance of righteousness through outward works, while your relationships never seem to improve? God’s mercy is reaching out to you with the truth so you don’t have to stay stuck in unproductive works. He wants to help you come to know how He works in the lives of His own children.
Making Heart-Level Connections, my new mini coaching programs, will help get you started in the right direction. I’m targeting the specific disconnects people have in their understanding about how God works inside of them so they can more fully cooperate toward receiving His love and spiritual blessings.
Here’s what one participant shared:
“I will tell anyone I feel will listen to join these coaching programs, because I know they can be life changing!!! There is nothing like them! I have read almost all the books Marilyn has written, read Barbie’s blogs and the posts they both share etc., BUT, the coaching calls are different! They help bring to light our lack of full understanding of what God wants to do in us. They help bring to light our disconnects. Marilyn and Barbie have a way of giving very specific input to all the ladies by seeing themes come up in the questionnaires and discussions. What I would have given to have this when I first began, and how thankful I am that He provided it now for me to continue to further my understanding and journey! I agree with others who have said these programs are priceless! They are treasures that help to bring connection and understanding about our growth process. Don’t miss out on these God-given blessings and provisions! He has used these women, who have cooperated with Him and sacrificially given, to help us see more of who He is. If you are not sure about it, ask Him if it is something you should invest in. I feel the value is eternal!” ~ Cynthia M.
The “Making Heart Level Connections” coaching programs have been so well received! Barbie and I are excited to see the real changes taking place in the participants. We hope you will join with us! We just finished the live session of the 3rd coaching program “Your Heart’s Desires” which will become available to you as a product in our eStore in a couple of weeks.
In the meantime, if you want to get started in Making Heart-Level Connections, you can purchase the 1st and 2nd programs “Your Conscience” and “God’s Moral Law” from one of our eStores. Both programs come with all the same materials as their live versions: 4 hrs of audio discussions, topic specific eArticles, questionnaires, plus an edited version of the private Fb discussions that we had with the participants.
We hope to encourage more of our LOLACHE members to participate in these dynamic programs, and toward that end, we produced an audio of testimonies given by coaching program participants that we installed on the LOLACHE members’ website. Go here to listen to the testimonies:
Click Here to Learn More about the programs in Making Heart-Level Connections
Go Here to get the program “Your Conscience”! Regular price is $63.00. LOLACHE members pay only $47.00!
Go Here to get the program “God’s Moral Law”! Regular price is $63.00. LOLACHE members pay only $47.00!
We hope you can join in on the next live coaching program “Your Faith” coming June 28th! Hurry! There’s only one more day to register!
Deadline for registering is June 21st.
I hope to hear from you soon!
Grateful to be in the Lord’s service,
Marilyn Howshall for Lifestyle of Learning™ Ministries
[Lifestyle of Learning™/LOLACHE eNewsletter ~ June 20, 2012, Issue 27]