God's Ways Are Higher - Pat Stark

Pat Stark

God’s Ways Are Higher

What I want to share with you comes from a long journey of struggle with God and His ways that have not always been my ways.

“He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel.” Psalms 103:7

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8,9.

My struggle with God’s ways being different than mine all began many years ago when I had cancer.  My pastor who was well known internationally and been used mightily also had cancer at the same time.  God spoke to me the words that one of us would be sacrificed for greater purpose. Because he was so valuable to the Body, I believed it was me and wrestled to surrender to God. As you can see, I’m still here and he is not, but it caused me to wrestle with something deep inside me regarding God’s ways and purposes that we often can’t see or understand. God also used scriptures like Isaiah 45 in the process.

The painful events of life can cause us to wrestle with things we have never struggled with before regarding God and his ways.

• Things like when life doesn’t make sense

• Like when believing for healing, but it doesn’t come

• Like when there is a death and we were believing for healing

• Like when we feel the scripture says one thing and God seems to do another

• Like when we have “pictures” we have created that we felt lined up with scripture but they don’t come to pass the way we had thought

• When God seems uncaring, silent, absent, or different and we feel confused, forsaken, and alone

• Times when we are forced to ask with great sadness, “Who are you God? I don’t understand you.”

Oswald Chambers in his time tested devotional, My Utmost For His Highest,”points out:

“There are times when God cannot lift the darkness from you, but trust Him. God will appear like an unkind friend, but He is not; He will appear like an unnatural Father, but He is not; He will appear like an unjust judge, but He is not. Keep the notion of the mind of God behind all things strong and growing…therefore you can rest in perfect confidence in Him.”

I’ve met with many people who have been unwilling to wrestle with all those uncomfortable feelings and they’ve just buried those emotions deep inside. Without realizing it, they have buried their anger and resentment toward God, but it displays through their feeling distant from Him, shut down inside, or with anger that comes out sideways, wounding others around them.

I used to shut down inside and then wonder where God was, and why He seemed so distant.  Then I realized that God hadn’t moved, I had just shut Him out by closing my heart. I’ve had to wrestle through some of my misunderstandings of God and scripture. Some of my interpretations were even correct, but my timing was wrong. How many times I had been driven by fear instead of trust in making decisions.

One was the timing of selling our house in New Jersey. God clearly said to put the house on the market in January of that year. But houses were selling slowly, and out of my fear, I talked my husband into listing it in November.  The house sold in 2 weeks. Between November and January housing prices increased by $30,000 and we lost out by having to accept November instead of January prices. Fear driven decisions are bad decisions.

God’s purposes are often higher than ours and His ways are often mystery, but we want to know, and that knowledge can be our trying to control things the way we want or need them to be. Without even realizing it we are eating from the wrong tree in the Garden.  The Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil instead of the Tree of Life (who is Jesus).  We often try to bring God down to our way of thinking, but He says, no, you come up here and see from My perspective. (Revelation 4:1) Even my prayers at an earlier time in life were to get God to do things in the way that seemed right to me. That way, Proverbs 16:25 tells us, is not life producing.

Surrendering to God’s ways first allows us to eat from the Tree of Life.  “God, what are you doing here, what are you saying?” When we have owned our fear and shared it truthfully with God and when we have truly surrendered it to God, not just with words or intellect, but through our fear, and from the will and heart, the result is always the same — His peace that passes our own understanding.

However coming to terms with loss of any kind, or the fear of loss, is so difficult. I believe it’s because we were originally created for the Garden and for delight, not for loss, and not for “deaths” of any kind.  Loss is not “natural” to us in the way God created us prior to the Fall of Man. That’s why we must learn to grieve our losses. 

Mourning our grief is God’s way for us to handle loss of any kind. We have to face the reality of our pain, allow ourselves to feel the hurt, and enter the struggle of our loss. We have to allow God to be our Comforter. We then walk through the loss and pain by holding His hand.  (Isaiah 43:2)

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their FEAR of death.”   Hebrews 2:14-15 NIV

There are many different kinds of “deaths” we can fear.

• Fear of aloneness

• Fear of emptiness

• Fear of change or of the unknown

• Fear of Loss of security which can include jobs, finances, relationships, our health and our loved ones health or even the fear of their wrong choices

 As I’m getting older and I’ve had to face the reality of approaching death myself, and I’ve come to view death very differently. I see death as an event on the journey of life much like a graduation or marriage.  I see it as a transition into a greater season, more than we could ever imagine or hope. However I often have to wrestle more to get to the place of surrender and peace with the present lesser losses.

We are already living in eternity according to Jesus.

“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3 NIV

We can tend to think of life as life on this side of eternity and life on the other side instead of realizing we are already in eternity and are in the process of training for reining on the other side of the veil. Because of Jesus’ death,  our lives don’t end in death ~~ the next phase just begins and we get to cross over. But in the process there is a mourning of the old, a releasing and letting go. It requires us to walk through into unknown places, trusting God that he is enough to walk us all the way through.

Life on the other side of the veil is bigger than this small world. It is the fulfillment of purpose, not the end. It is the beginning of a season of living fully alive!

Pat

Pat Stark is the author of Born to Fly: Pursuing the Life You Were Meant to Live…Free; Lost Heart: A Guide to Living From Your Heart in a Broken World, and The Story of Life: The Life We All Try to Find,” available on Amazon, as well as The Covenant Center bookstore. Her message brings freedom and hope in the midst of a world of uncertainty. Her desire is to see people restored to who they were originally created to be before they were wounded by the hurts of life. She is gifted in dealing with root issues lying beneath the surface that have kept people trapped and unable to experience true freedom. Pat has worked with people for over 40 years in the area of deep spiritual and emotional healing. She is an ordained minister through The Covenant Center, Lakeland, Florida.

Contact: info@thecovenantcenter.com

*Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, Discovery House Publishers, Grand Rapids, Michigan, c.1963, Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd.

Winds of Change - Pat Stark

Pat Stark

Do you know how sometimes there is an elephant under the rug and nobody talks about it? Well It appears like there’s an elephant under the rug of the church at large.  I’m not specifically talking about TCC, but we’re part of it because we are part of the church at large.

This might seem strange to some of you, but as I talk with serious Christians from different parts of the country, the central Florida area, as well as Lakeland, I hear them  struggling. These people aren't just ordinary Christians going through the motions. They are desperately hungry Christians, truly trying to hear God, and walk with Him into this next year.

What they are struggling with disturbs them because feeling this way is not what they are used to and most think there is something wrong with them. They even struggle to put words to it and often feel guilty for even feeling as they do. When I tell them I’m hearing the same thing from all over the place they are shocked. What they are feeling that they struggle to put words to, is that, “THEY DON’T WANT TO GO TO CHURCH”

This is not about a specific church. Their churches are fine.  It’s not about that. It’s   about their hunger, and the old church model that they can’t do anymore. We have tried to tweak it and make it more relevant but that has done nothing because the hunger is for something far deeper.

MAP AT THE MALL

I believe strongly that unless we know where we are, we can’t get where we’re going. So as much as I hate to share this message of people not wanting to go to church, I feel like we need to be real with where so much of the church is, instead of just trying to bury the feelings.

I don't know if you remember a prophecy that was given a few years back — I wish I had the date and a copy, but it generally said, “ The church as we’ve known it will never be the same”.  I believe we are in that season of change. We have no idea what that change actually looks like, so how do we do it?  As a result, we often just keep doing things as we’ve always done while just trying to get over the dissatisfied feelings. However I believe we are not meant to just get over it but he use the time to cry out to God for more with surrender to His ways. Owning the reality that we really don’t know how to have church in this new season is a good starting place.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Being poor in spirit is a teachable spirit, a humble spirit, a spirit willing to be taught a new way.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. “

We are mourning many disappointed desires right now. Things are not as we had thought or had hoped and we have to let them go through mourning the losses in order to experience the new things God has for us.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Matthew 5:3-6 NIV

We need to allow our hunger and thirst to come to the surface even though it can be confusing, difficult and painful.

HUNGER & THIRST

Think of a starving person — they are DESPERATELY HUNGRY!

Isn’t that the way we are meant to be? I know for me, the more I had realized that I didn’t really know how to do life, love, family, church, relationships; the more desperate I became for God to teach me His ways. I believe we are in a time like that now. We need to cry out to God to reveal what church is meant to look like in this new season. We need God to teach us what He is doing right now and be willing to surrender to His ways both individually and corporately.

It has been said that we are at the END OF THE CHURCH AGE & THE BEGINNING OF THE KINGDOM AGE.  Is that why so many people are struggling with church the way we have always done it?

We have a choice, either remain the same and do things the old way or desperately cry out for God to teach us his way for the season we are in now. When we have an internal struggle, and if we don’t face it, we will usually grumble with dissatisfaction.

I think most people are aware that we have been in a season of transition. God has been shaking everything. But much of the shaking has been in our personal lives through circumstances like health, finances, relationships, as well as in other areas of false security. Now He is shaking the church. Lots of dysfunction has to go; dysfunction in our own lives, our families, our government, but also in our churches. Circumstances we go through force us to face ourselves and begin to heal from past hurts instead of just burying and then acting out of them in unhealthy ways.

In an interesting scripture from Isaiah 28, God says, ”… we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.”  But God continues, “…hail (or CIRCUMSTANCES) will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place.“

We have hidden ourselves in many things, things like performance, perfectionism, our careers, ministry, relationships, etc. Dysfunctional people produce dysfunctional families, produce dysfunctional churches, produce dysfunctional government. Until we face our own dysfunctions, nothing really grows or changes.

God is preparing a people, a church that the gates of hell will not prevail against. I wish He would make it clearer as to what He is doing, but the not knowing is meant to break our control and cause us to desperately cry out for Him to teach us His ways and create a willingness to cooperate within us. One thing I do know is that “Unless the Lord builds the house we labor in vain who try to build it”.  (Psalm 127:1)  And that “house” that He builds, the gates of hell will not prevail against.  (Matthew 16:18)

There are several things that I do hear people crying out for, and one is for real community. They want more than just sitting side-by-side in church or even just coffee gatherings before or after church. People are hungry for real connection with other people, for heart-to-heart openness, transparency, and honesty. They want to know others and be known. COVID Isolated and separated people and now they are hungry for small gatherings where genuine connection is possible.

They are hungry for worship where they can pour their hearts out to God. 

Another thing I hear them cry out for is to experience the manifest presence of God and his glory in their midst. There is a longing for the life, light, and change that comes out of the glory of God’s manifest presence.

How do we get there? I have no clue, but I do know that I too am hungry and thirsty for more than just the same old way, and prayerfully we need to join together to cry out for the release of God’s Spirit in our midst.

Pat Stark is the author of Born to Fly: Pursuing the Life You Were Meant to Live…Free; Lost Heart: A Guide to Living From Your Heart in a Broken World, and The Story of Life: The Life We All Try to Find,” available on Amazon, as well as The Covenant Center bookstore. Her message brings freedom and hope in the midst of a world of uncertainty. Her desire is to see people restored to who they were originally created to be before they were wounded by the hurts of life. She is gifted in dealing with root issues lying beneath the surface that have kept people trapped and unable to experience true freedom. Pat has worked with people for over 40 years in the area of deep spiritual and emotional healing. She is an ordained minister through The Covenant Center, Lakeland, Florida.

Contact: info@thecovenantcenter.com

Heart Matters by Pat Stark

It’s a pleasure to share the following teaching by Pat Stark which was streamed on Mother’s Day from The Covenant Center. As she invites us to look at the wounded places in our hearts that may block God’s River of Life, we learn “we are all unable to live our lives from the heart in a healthy way without our living from Christ in us.” Our insufficiency or weakness in the world is often seen as inability, but in His kingdom it is viewed as surrender that transforms into strength.

Pat reminds us that God is a nurturer and we are also meant to nurturer with Him. Life is sometimes messy and we all fall short at times. However, when we become aware of the voices of darkness that we have accepted from our youth, life and joy will spring forth and we will become aware more fully that in Him we live, move and have our being. Acts 17:28 declares: “For in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.”

In His Love, Becky

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Heart Matters by Pat Stark

We can’t give what we don’t have!

That’s why inner emotional healing is so important. Look at our childhoods… Too often our physical needs were taken care of, but there was not much nurturing of our hearts, or perhaps there was even shaming that happened to us instead.

That shaming sometimes comes with words. Words like, “What is wrong with you?” “That’s so stupid!” “I can’t believe you did that!” Or maybe there were “unspoken words” directed toward us that came in the form of a sigh or look of disgust. Unfortunately, all that brought us a “message,” we received deeply in our hearts about ourselves. And if it happened often, that message was reinforced many times over, building a stronghold deep within us.

Sadly, the message we received, we don’t often remember with our brain; but it is one that is imprinted deeply on our hearts, even if we don’t consciously remember it. “As a man thinks within his heart so is he,” Proverbs tells us.

Those messages had words like: “I don’t matter.” “I don’t measure up.” “I’m a mistake.” “I’m a disappointment.” “I’m a failure”, and others. We all have our own version. Those were deceitful, lying messages that gave us a false identity at the core of our being. They were locked deeply inside, many times hidden even from ourselves, except we live out of them every day of our lives. Those messages can cause us to either shrink back and refuse to risk or try to prove ourselves through our performance.

Our minds and bodies can be taught many things, but our hearts often feel disconnected and alone. Then, we can have a difficult time connecting with our own true selves or knowing what is really going on within us, or connecting with God as a loving Father, or deeply connecting with others, causing us to often feel rejected. We also can try to over-connect with others to get our previously unmet needs met. We often give our hands in service without ever giving our hearts and then we wonder why people don’t respond. We do good things but never have heart connection.

God is a Nurturer

God is a nurturer, and we are meant to be nurturers with Him. Look at all living things. An orange tree for example. If it is nurtured with water, fertilizer and sunshine it can produce sweet, beautiful, juicy oranges. But if neglected, even if fruit appears at all, the oranges can taste very sour.

Families grow healthy with nurturing and connection from the heart. Marriages and relationships grow healthy with nurturing and connection from the heart. Otherwise, we can still feel very lonely in a family. Why? There is often no heart connection, even when everyone seemingly gets along on the surface.

Example ~ I’ve seen many marriages through the years where one of the partners thought everything was fine and then all of a sudden, the other wants a divorce. Why? There was usually no real heart connection, no nurturing of the marriage. We all long to be known and seen, and accepted, not just tolerated.

We have all failed in valuing and hearing the other well; as we all have felt we were failed by others in our own lives. That’s why heart forgiveness is so important or resentment builds. Learning to accept God’s forgiveness and forgiving ourselves where we have failed others, and yes, sometimes even forgiving God when we feel he wasn’t there for us in the way we desired in certain circumstances is an important practice. The more we face our own failings and forgive ourselves, the easier it is to forgive others for their failures. Even with our best intentions, in our own humanity, we have often made a mess! 

We have all come short in our humanity! Coming short often feels like a shame thing, but it is really a human thing. As long as we see our failures as shame, we will try to hide, fix or cover over our emotions. But as we own our mess, our humanity, our legitimate shame, our failures, like how we have hurt or failed another, we can honestly meet Jesus there lovingly offering us forgiveness. That is “clean” and restorative,

instead of hiding it or covering it over with false spirituality. As we humbly embrace how easy it is for us to mess up, we become truly desperate for Jesus to walk with us, to heal and rebuild.

When We are Weak He is Strong

We are meant to embrace our weakness, but most people I’ve spoken with hate weakness. It feels uncomfortable, but it is a path to victory. From 2 Corinthians, we learn it is also a path to freedom. Paul tells us, “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness,” 2 Corinthians 11:30.

Again, we learn from Paul, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses …so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong,” 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NIV.

“For to be sure, Jesus was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him….” 2 Corinthians 13:4 NIV.

Sadly, it too often takes difficult and painful circumstances for us to begin to face ourselves honestly. And although the enemy wants to destroy us through difficult circumstances, God wants to actually bring healing to deeper places within us through them.

From Isaiah 30: “The Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!”

“Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Then you will desecrate your idols (or the false systems we have trusted in to make life work our own way) … you will throw them away …”

“He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows. The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.”

Trials Bring Perspective of Our Need For Him

In reality, we are ALL unable to live our lives from the heart in a healthy way without our living from CHRIST IN US.  Sadly, we can know this spiritually, but what is the fruit of our lives revealing? Our fruit reveals where we really are and where we are stuck. For example, in our relationships, how do we respond when things do not go well? When we listen to the News? What is our reaction? When we feel powerless in a situation or when it’s unfair — what is our response? Jesus said, “By their fruit you shall know them.” Is our fruit, harshness, anxiety, short temper, fear, anger?  Do we avoid uncomfortable situations? Escape?

We all come short, we are all a mess but that’s not shame, it’s our humanity. It is the way we were designed to recognize our need for Jesus’ life in us. It is meant to drive us to Jesus in surrender, allowing Him to live His life in us and through us in greater measure than ever before.  WE ALL NEED JESUS MORE THAN WE HAVE EVER KNOWN!

Pat Stark is the author of Born to Fly: Pursuing the Life You Were Meant to Live…Free; Lost Heart: A Guide to Living From Your Heart in a Broken World, and The Story of Life: The Life We All Try to Find,” available on Amazon, as well as The Covenant Center bookstore. Her message brings freedom and hope in the midst of a world of uncertainty. Her desire is to see people restored to who they were originally created to be before they were wounded by the hurts of life. She is gifted in dealing with root issues lying beneath the surface that have kept people trapped and unable to experience true freedom. Pat has worked with people for over 40 years in the area of deep spiritual and emotional healing. She is an ordained minister through The Covenant Center, Lakeland, Florida.

Contact: info@thecovenantcenter.com

Living In Peace In Troubling Times - Pat Stark

Pat Stark shares insightful words of encouragement and hope. Her messages are full of prophetic insight as she gives understanding to the times and seasons we live in. I believe she has important keys to share as we learn to walk victoriously through troubling times.

God instructs us to be at peace and trust in Him, but God’s peace may look a little different than what we imagine.  Pat shares the following:

“How often he comes to us in a different way than we’ve previously experienced him. We think it’s the enemy, and the enemy is often involved, but God is using the situation in a different way to actually free us from false pictures we didn’t even know we had.”

This is so true! I encourage you to read this word from Pat as we continue to learn His ways while abiding in His presence and peace. Enjoy this word and be encouraged that God cares about you! Becky

Living In Peace In Troubling Times 

Pat Stark

Almost everyone is feeling the effects of the turmoil of our times. You almost have to be asleep to be not affected in some way. We are also seeing the shaking play out in our own lives and affecting us personally — relationally, financially, emotionally, health wise, even our freedoms are being challenged on a daily basis.  All our securities, the things we so easily trusted in, are being challenged.

Definition of Security: “The state of being free from danger or threat”

So what is God doing in us during this season of personal, national, and global uncertainty?

God often uses times like these to bring change deep within us as he allows our false foundations to be shaken and challenges the way we have interpreted life. So what are some of the things he is changing within us? 

He is teaching us that “He will be the sure foundation for our times.” Isaiah 33:6:

Not our finances, our jobs, ministry, health, the government, or other people. Sadly they can all become our false securities without our even realizing it.

He is changing our ways.  The way we have interpreted life and believed it was supposed to look, our false pictures of our entitlements, or even the religious pictures we have picked up along the way. Intimacy with God requires the changing of our ways of seeing.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV

One of his ways is that sometimes he comes to us in a “different form” than we are used to. After Jesus had resurrected from the dead, we read in Luke 24:14-17, 19-21 NIV:

“They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” They stood still, their faces downcast. “What things?” he asked. “About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel…”

How often he comes to us in a different way than we’ve previously experienced him. We think it’s the enemy, and the enemy is often involved, but God is using the situation in a different way to actually free us from false pictures we didn’t even know we had. 

But we had hoped… How often is our hope deferred.  We hope God will do things a different way, show up sooner than he does, or that things will turn out differently, and we are disappointed. The disciples had an earthly perspective of how they believed it was supposed to turn out, as too often, so do we.

How many times does God seem to thwart our plans!  How many times throughout my life, I have silently demanded or expected God to do something in a certain way, or have needed him to come through in my picture, or in a certain timeframe, and he doesn’t. He remains silent. He leaves me hanging! And then it’s not until I finally surrender the outcome to him, that he comes and causes the phone to ring or releases something I’ve needed.

We often have an earthly, worldly, human perspective of how things need to look for us to have peace, but he is lifting us higher into seeing from his Kingdom perspective and learning to walk in his ways.

“For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal.” Job 5:18 NIV

His intent is never to harm us, but he does wound us in order to heal us and to bring us to a higher level of trust in him and in his ways so that we can walk in his peace. When we come to him quietly demanding, or with our own expectations of how he should act, he is often silent.

Quote:  “God is more interested in our transformation than our happiness." John Eldredge

He is breaking our boxes — the ones we have used to neatly file alway all our Christian pictures, our interpretations, and opening up our way of thinking. He is exposing our views of the way we think things need to play out in order for us to have peace, and messing with even some of our former Bible interpretations.

Instead he is teaching us to have peace in the midst of the storm, peace in the boat with him as the waves are crashing all around us. It is his storm.  And it’s often in the storm with him that we discover peace right there in it’s midst.  Going through our storm with him, we discover the following verses to be true: 

“See, it is I who created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon fit for its work. And it is I who have created the destroyer to wreak havoc; no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the Lord.” Isaiah 54:16-17 NIV

“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.” Isaiah 54:10 NIV

“My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest. Though hail flattens the forest and the city is leveled completely,” Isaiah 32:18-19 NIV

 He is exposing our old survival systems. Our survival systems are the things we have trusted in to make life work for us so we can feel OK and have false peace. For Christians they can be even good things like ministry, relationships (that are actually on-dependent), our gifts, prayer, even the Bible.  I used the Bible for years to get a false identity.  It wasn’t until everything in my life began to fall apart that I allowed God to show me it was a false system to try to keep my life safe, and to get worth from my Bible “knowledge”.

Good things that we eat from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” come from the wrong tree and from it we get twisted motives. Instead we need to receive our peace from eating from the “tree of Life” who is Jesus. Good things can become twisted because of the motives and intents of our hearts that can be buried within us without our knowledge.

“A person may think their own ways are right, but the Lord weighs the heart.” Proverbs 21:2 NIV

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12 NIV

JESUS IS THE WAY (in the present circumstances and into our future)

JESUS IS THE TRUTH, (of life itself)

JESUS IS OUR VERY LIFE  (that is fully alive!)

Pat Stark has worked with hurting people for over 30 years in the area of deep spiritual and emotion healing. She is an author and conference speaker. Her books are available on Amazon, Kindle and The Covenant Center Bookstore: The Story of Life - The Life We All Try to Find; Born To Fly - Pursuing The Life You Were Meant To Live…Free; Lost Heart? A Guide To Living From The Heart In A Broken World.

The Pandemic - Pat Stark

In this season of testing and refining... “What looked like a full blown assault from the enemy was really a preparation process for the Church."  Pete Garza, Quote from Elijah List.

In recent times, many prophetic words have said that the church as we’ve known it will no longer be the same... What could that even look like?

It’s easy to look at the prophecy regarding the church as an institution — like our church or the church down the street, but WE ARE THE CHURCH.  So that means that we will never look the same! If we are to be internally changed, God’s going to mess with us and our ways!  Ouch! One way God gets our attention and begins to bring change to us is through our circumstances. 

The pandemic we are currently experiencing is creating change in all of our lives and circumstances. For example, one young man that I know who has always worked at home and has not been particularly a people person, has not had his life altered dramatically. However, an important component of his mental health has always been working out at the gym, and when the gyms closed down, the lack of exercise that kept his brain emotionally healthy caused him to struggle with depression. We are all affected, some more than others, but it certainly messes with our expectations and what we’ve looked at as our entitlements.

Questions to ask myself:  How am I expecting my life to look that’s not working?

What am I feeling as a result?   What do I trust in or depend on to give me “life”?

EXAMPLE: Do I look to family or other relationships, work, ministry, my religious systems, having good health?

Do I get angry that I can’t just do as I please?

Do I get fearful when I listen to the latest news?

Do I escape into fantasy or simply distract myself on the Internet?

What have I used to escape feeling my emotions produced from the pandemic? We might have used even good things, but things unknowingly used (except by the Enemy) to avoid the discomfort, and therefore the healing changes God wants to bring within us. Our escape can come from the good side (not the evil side) of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but not from the life-giving Tree of Life.  As those things in our lives get shaken, what happens inside of us — what emotions are we feeling?

EXAMPLE: I had a big struggle with a very small thing that God used because of the Pandemic in my life. Through what I believed was irrational fear, the pool has remained closed in my community. That pool is an important part of my life because I need the exercise and it’s the only exercise I’m physically able to do. It enables my body to function well and gives me the stamina for the things I’m involved with. My initial response was anger because I felt it to be an irrationally motivated, fear-based decision that was unfair, and I was powerless to change it. I took the power I did have to text, speak up, etc., but no amount of logic or suggestions of ways to deal with the problem was acknowledged. (You can’t use logic in dealing with emotional decisions.). My only power was to find other pools for exercise, which God has graciously provided, but God also used it to bring me to a place of surrendering my angry, demanding heart to Him and to grieve the unfairness of the loss, leading to ultimate forgiveness.

Many people are functionally “off” right now emotionally —they are edgy, prickly, not themselves, off-balance because of not processing what they are struggling with emotionally.

Our emotions need to be owned and processed to get past them. When we push them down and refuse to feel them, we get lost, shut down, irritable, anxious, and even depressed. We get stuck.

For example if you’re going on a trip, you must know your starting place in order to get to the right destination. The same is true with our emotions.  What emotions are you feeling in this Pandemic?  As I talk with people from all around,  I am hearing emotions expressed like:

LOST, CONFUSED, POWERLESS, OVERWHELMED, DISSATISFIED,

FEARFUL/ANXIOUS, EMPTY.

The emotion I struggled with was EMPTY.  The fullness of life as we’ve known it is no longer here and we can’t change it.  However as I struggled with that negative emotion and accepted the feelings of the emptiness, I began to see that EMPTINESS is the beginning of true FULLNESS. Emptiness when embraced becomes real hunger and thirst, and if we don’t try to fill it with lesser things again, we begin to be truly hungry for Jesus and the living water that only he can give. 

Our negative emotions when owned, embraced, and worked through to a place of surrender to God’s ways become positive, life-giving emotions.

For example:  anger worked through becomes courage, fear and anxiety faced, owned, and released to God becomes peace, despair can become true hope in God’s goodness, and facing our emptiness opens the door to the in-filling flow of living water that satisfies the hungry soul.

 “On the final and climactic day of the Feast, Jesus took his stand. He cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way,’ “ just as the Scripture says, John 7:37 MSG.

“You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.”

 “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.”

“You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.”

“You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat,” Matthew 5, The Message Bible.

Pat Stark

Pat Stark is the author of Born to Fly: Pursuing the Life You Were Meant to Live…Free, Lost Heart: A Guide to Living From Your Heart in a Broken World, and The Story of Life: The Life We All Try to Find,” available on Amazon, as well as The Covenant Center bookstore. Her message brings freedom and hope in the midst of a world of uncertainty. Her desire is to see people restored to who they were originally created to be before they were wounded by the hurts of life. She is gifted in dealing with root issues lying beneath the surface that have kept people trapped and unable to experience true freedom. Pat has worked with people for over 40 years in the area of deep spiritual and emotional healing. She is an ordained minister through The Covenant Center, Lakeland, Florida.

Grieving Our Disappointed Desires & Losses - Pat Stark

Pat Stark

When we begin to allow ourselves to experience life without wearing our rose colored glasses, we often come face to face with some disappointed hopes, desires, frustrations, sorrows, injustices, and a general reflection of the brokenness of the world we currently live in. Most of us have spent a lifetime trying to push away, control, or redesign that realty. Without warning we can and have all experienced things like the death of a loved one, the finality of an unwanted divorce, an unexpected illness, the pain of betrayal in a valued relationship, the sudden loss of a job, or simply an unfulfilled desire we have concerning our family or close friends — often even with God. Our simple desires, especially around the holidays, are often thwarted with so many feeling forgotten, rejected, abandoned, or depressed.

 Where is God in all this, especially when we are feeling so very alone, forsaken, and sometimes even forgotten by him and others? I see Jesus weeping because it was never meant to be this way: a “Man of Sorrows” who experienced that grief too. However, because of his own suffering, death and resurrection, he is now a Redeemer of things stolen, a Restorer of broken hearts so that we can now experience a “fellowship in our suffering” with him and he with us when we are willing to allow ourselves to enter our grief with him.

 This is not the Garden he originally created for us to enjoy. Many of us have spent far too much energy trying to recreate that Garden the way it was originally intended to be; and in that struggle, we often find ourselves angry, frustrated, depressed, and struggling to make life work according to our picture, and make it be fair. The reality is that this world isn't fair -- it wasn't fair for Jesus as they abused him and hung him on a cross even though he was the only perfect man who had ever lived! If it wasn’t fair for Jesus, you can bet it won't be fair or just for us at times. One day on the other side, yes, but not here.

 Then what do we do when our heart breaks over some loss or disappointment in our lives? What do we do with our fears of the insecurity of life and those things our hearts were created for, the things we had hoped for? What do we do with that slow ache that resides far down in the depths of our soul, the vague feelings of disillusionment that we have experienced over and over in relationships, jobs, church, ministry, even with God and ourselves if we can no longer bury them, or even hide those feelings under our survival system of choice? We can't just carry them so there must be a way to release them and find the peace that passes understanding and the joy of life even in their midst! Grief is part of life in a broken world. If we don’t release our sorrows and disappointments with mourning, we bury them internally and carry the emotions, often in our physical bodies as sickness, and miss the release and comfort God provides.

 Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted,” Matthew 5:4 NIV.

 Mourning our Grief

God's way of helping us to release a loss of any kind is through grieving. Too often we put grieving only in the category of death, but it is far bigger than that. Any loss, major or seemingly minor, when mourned, can be released.

 Grieving begins with acknowledging and facing that loss, not just in general, but as our pain-filled loss. It is listening to the voice of our own heart in that moment and allowing ourselves to feel emotions like anger, disappointment, sadness, depression, distraction, anxiety, and even fear, putting our own words to them.

 Because our emotions are the voice of our hearts, they are telling us what our hearts are feeling and when we refuse to acknowledge the feeling, we can stay stuck in that particular emotion for years even though we bury it and try to move on. But when we allow ourselves to “mourn” our loss, we will continue to move through the pain finally coming to a place of acceptance and peace.

 As we allow ourselves to mourn our losses, the eyes of our hearts become open to see the many gifts God is giving; some very small and others that are amazing, right in the midst of the losses of our lives that bring new adventure to each day. The more we allow ourselves to face our losses, we begin to see with new eyes of wonder that the difficult and sad are often mixed in with the beautiful and wonderful. In the same hour we can experience a wonderful "gift" through a moment of joy along with a major disappointed desire. How do we handle that mixture? By remembering we all desire to live "happily ever after" as the fairly tales have portrayed —and it would have been our experience had we remained in the Garden, but unfortunately the fall of man messed up that picture completely. So until we one day live on the other side of the “veil”, we will live here with mixture and we desperately need God to walk with us in the midst of both our sorrows and our joys.

 “...weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning,” Psalms 30:5 NIV.

 “You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise you forever,” Psalms 30:11-12 NIV.

Seven Truths For A Strong Foundation - Pat Stark

Broken world living contains much mixture - the beautiful with the ugly, the easy with the difficult, the joys with the sorrows, the wonderful with the terrible, the thrilling and exciting with the mundane and downright boring. Walking with God through all of the above refines and purifies our demanding hearts; for in our humanity, we all desire the perfect, the fair, the just, the easy. One day on the other side, we will have it, but not here. Jesus in all his perfection suffered horrible injustice! And so will we (John 16:33).

Just like in the seasons of nature, a tree is battered in some moments and restored with the warmth of the sunshine in others; stretched to capacity as it is bent low in a violent windstorm, but restored to beauty in the gentle rains from above. Our lives are like that - the future unknown, the next moments uncertain, but God is our Rock, the only solid place under our feet when all else is quaking. We know that in our heads, but through our circumstances we are forced to learn that in our hearts. He is the only sure foundation for our time (Isaiah 33:6) - for the insecurities we live with that are lurking in the distance. HE is our only security. Surrendering our lives into his hands is the only way of peace, for He alone holds all things together when they seem to be falling apart all around us (Colossians 1:17 & Psalm 31:14-15 NIV).

In this my 80th year of life with over 50 plus years of walking with Jesus, I have come to some realities to stand firm upon as I have walked through the battering of this fallen world in my day to day circumstances.

1) Emotional healing from the past frees me to live from God’s grace and peace, instead of fear, anxiety and
the need to control.

2) I can’t do life on my own. I don’t even know what it is suppose to look like. My own “pictures of life” are skewed. I am weak, but He is strong in my weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 and 13:4 NIV).

3) Life really is too big for me so I must be desperately, emotionally dependent upon God at all times or fear will take over.

4) Unless I become childlike, not childish, I can’t even see the Kingdom of God, no less live in it. (Children are weak and dependent, trusting on the one who is bigger than them).

5) I will grieve and mourn a lot because this broken world is not what I was created for and not the way I want it to be (Matthew 5:3,4 NIV).

6) Daily surrender and gratitude are absolutely necessary if I’m to live in peace and remain in peace in the midst of it all. (I must look daily with thankfulness for the gifts that come in the midst of the losses).

7) I get the privilege of co-laboring with God in my own uniqueness and for His own purposes, so my life takes on rich meaning even in the midst of the brokenness of daily living.

In The Fullness Of Time - Pat Stark

Ecclesiastes 3:1 - "There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven."

IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME, GOD BROUGHT FORTH.... Those who were looking could feel the shift in the atmosphere being released and coinciding with the Biblical New Year that began this fall. As wonderful as that was, unfortunately many of us have not felt the shift happen in every area of our lives or families. For some of us, there continue to be difficult areas in which we are still experiencing struggle and pain, without seeing any clue of breakthrough happening on the horizon. Of course we are not meant to see with our natural eyes, but with the eyes of the Spirit. However, until that breakthrough fully manifests, we can be walking blindly through what still feels like a very difficult season. We long for major change, but the shift can be very imperceptible in its beginning stages.

It has been my experience that God gets mileage out of everything! I am still walking in the midst of a very painful season in my own life right now that in the natural, shows no hint of changing. Those seasons wear on us - especially when they are prolonged, and of course the enemy whispers, "This will never change, it is going to last forever.' I always need to recognize that for what it really is - a lie from the enemy! Seasons by their very nature change. The long winter changes to the hope of spring, the horrifically hot Florida summer changes to the refreshing breezes of fall. None of it changes perfectly, but it does change. The Bible says so.

I've also learned that as much as the enemy uses the circumstances to try to destroy my tender heart, God uses them to purify my heart; to test me by using the pressure to bring up any buried fears, aspects of control, angers and silent demands. He breaks my "pictures" ( I didn't realize I even had) of how I wanted things to be. It is a season of grieving the losses that we can't seem to change. We can't even pray enough prayers to bring change. As a result we can feel helpless, powerless, often forsaken and forgotten, but the truth is that God is still in the midst of it all. He is mighty and working all things to our ultimate good if we allow him. However in that season, most of his work is being done inside us, hidden from even our own eyes. He is tearing down false survival systems, things we have built to make life work our own way.

Being in one of those painful seasons right now, a song was shared with me, sung by Kristine Dimarco called "Jesus, Your Love." It is an encouraging, heart-healing song that I've played over and over in the darkest of times as things appeared to be getting more and more devastating. I share a few lines with you to hopefully bring you the encouragement and strengthening it has brought to me.

"There is a LOVE that takes me by the hand
Guiding my heart to find its home again
And where YOU are is home to me...
So let my heart tell You again
When SEASONS CHANGE AND STORIES END
Your steady LOVE - it will sustain me through it all..."

Foundations - Pat Stark

The foundation of a house is vitally important. If the foundation is not strong or built correctly eventually the house will have major problems. The same is true of our own lives. If we have unforgivenenss and bitterness in our foundation; unhealed hurts perhaps going all the way back to our beginnings, or maybe a lack of being able to trust because of past betrayals or insecurities from early rejections, the structure of our lives will not be strong, peaceful or secure. So when the winds of adversity come, fear can easily overwhelm us.

Ephesians 2:19-22 states: "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit."

I believe we are currently in a season where God is shaking and testing our foundations so we can be fitted into the house he is building. What have our lives been built on? His loving shaking is necessary to uproot whatever false foundations we might have built on the illusion of control or the false security of the world system. What might we have relied on for our particular picture of life or our version of the American dream? What does that look like for each of us? Have we looked to a particular relationship to give us life, or to our material possessions? Perhaps a career or ministry? Our family, spouse, children, friends? What about our health, strength, abilities? Those things cannot be our foundation for anyone of them can be lost in an instant!

In Hebrews 12: 26 (NIV) we find the following: "At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, Once More Will Shake Not Only The Earth But Also The Heavens." The words "Once More" indicate the removing of what can be shaken - that is, created things,  "so that what cannot be shaken may remain" (vs 27). What does he shake? The things, the systems we have created to make life work the way we think we need it to in order to feel secure.

Yes, the light is getting lighter, but right along with that, the darkness is getting darker and trying to invade our light. Unless we are grounded on the foundation of total surrender to Jesus Christ in all of our ways and circumstances, the danger lurks of becoming overwhelmed and overcome by them. This is a season of allowing God to rebuild our particular house so that the "gates of hell cannot prevail against us" and that as the winds blow in our lives, we remain standing anchored and grounded on the Rock who is Jesus. That building cannot be destroyed.