Defying Gravity

Photo taken on board my January 12 flight back to Manila






Through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free
from the law of sin and death.
- Romans 8:2




...being confident of this,
that he who began a good work in you
will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
- Philippians 1:6




See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
- Isaiah 43:19

Already the first month of the new year is over.

Much as I wanted to document the many incredible things that have taken place in my little corner this past month, it just has been impossible to do that.

The least I can do is write an overview, summarize the main lesson God has taught me these past four weeks, and give January a name as it ends.

In 2011, giving each month a name as it ended enabled me to look back over the past twelve months and clearly see the pattern of how God has been at work in my life.

This year He is bringing me to a much higher level.



I was on an airplane four times this month. This isn't really anything new to me. Those who have an idea of my history already know that riding airplanes has been a part of my life this past decade.

But this time I realized that God was speaking to me not just about physical take offs and touch downs... He was showing me something of greater spiritual significance, something that is to have a deep impact on my life this year.

There are jubilee blessings about to be poured out over me and my family.

This year also promises to be a year of fulfillment and completion. He who has started a good work in me will complete it.

It will be a year of restoration.

The verse written on my heart as God's promise for me this year is one quoted above, taken from Isaiah 43:19.

See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.

The year 2012 will be year of new things for me. God has spoken: Keep your eyes on me... be sure you are following my lead... for you have not passed this way before.

I sense a different law at work in me these days. I became aware of it in early December when God set me free from the prison of an offended spirit. (Forgiveness Frees!)

God has been waiting to do a deeper work... but the right conditions had to be met.

God intervened at the right time, and activated a new law in motion in my life.

Gravity is a universal law, a downward pull needed to keep us from floating all over the place. However, to enable us to move up higher, and to allow us to travel to distant places, this law has to be superseded by another law... the law of aerodynamics.

This law enables airplanes to take off and travel above the clouds. The law of gravity still operates, but because of the law of lift, the downward pull of gravity is rendered inoperative through the operation of a higher law.

This whole month God has been shifting my perspective, and showing me just how the law of lift is also true in a spiritual sense.

The law of gravity still works, but the law of lift can supersede it. Speed, thrust, flow... these are some of the elements of Newton's law of motion that enable the law of aerodynamics to function.

In my own spiritual life, there are elements that enable the law of lift to work as well. I have discovered that obedience, forgiveness, humility, going back to my First Love... being unencumbered by the things of this world, choosing to let go, descending into heavenly greatness... these are some important ingredients that allow me to soar and not be pulled down to an earthly existence.

We can choose to look at our relationships and life circumstances from the lower law - or we can choose to view them from a higher level.

How easy it is to be legalistic and demand our just dues in any personal transaction we make. Unfortunately this kind of mindset never works to our advantage. No matter how hard we have tried to make everything right in our life, things will still not always go as we expect them to. Some of our best laid out plans are still bound to miscarry.

Grace and mercy... this is the way of the cross. This is the path Christ took.


This month I have become aware of a compassion in my heart that has replaced a subtle demand that people, and even God himself, treat me according to how I want my life to go.

This has been a lesson deeply ingrained into my heart the past many decades of my life, but if I want to move up higher, the lesson has to be re-learned at another level.

Go through life with open hands.

It does not mean that I become a doormat for other people to step on.

Meekness... gentleness... these character traits of the Lord Jesus Christ did not mean He allowed Himself to be trampled on by others.

For me, it means to go through my present circumstances without a heavy demand for others to meet my need, or placing an expectation on them to do things my way.

Meekness is being able to wait for God to act, and trusting that He has the situation in His hands.

Operating under the spiritual law of lift has required me to release people from promises they have made to me and my family.

Looking to human beings to keep their word created in me a dependence on them, an expectation, that was pulling me downward.

I wanted to be free.


Earlier this month, during the personal retreat at Tagaytay, I approached God's heavenly court and released these persons from promises that have remained unfulfilled to this day. By doing so, I sent a clear message to the enemy that I am now looking to God, not man, for the provisions of the promise.

Although it was just a simple declaration, done without fuss or fanfare, doing so brought such an awesome release for me.

The spiritual law of lift enables us to look at others not with judgment but with compassion.

The law of compassion is a higher law, one so powerful that it breaks hearts of stone. Many years ago I read this quote in a book I was reading: Treat any human heart as if it were breaking.

I have never forgotten it. Oswald Chambers himself reinforced this when he said,

Stop having a measuring stick for other people.

There is always at least one more fact, which we know nothing about, in every person’s situation.

The first thing God does is to give us a thorough spiritual cleaning. After that, there is no possibility of pride remaining in us.

My Utmost for His Highest, June 17

On January 17, my daughter's domestic helper Irene left us to get married. She had served us well for nearly three years. On the morning of her departure, I could not help but shed tears of sadness. She was a good maid to my daughter and me and has made things a lot easier for us. She would be up at dawn each morning to prepare breakfast and Obedient One's packed lunch. Irene had become so good at preparing a variety of salads, sauces, pastas, stews, and my daughter always enjoyed the delicious meals that her maid had lovingly prepared for her. She kept the house clean, and did the laundry every day. In the evening, supper would be waiting for my daughter when she got home. Even George, my daughter's mini schnauzer was well taken care of.

Irene was a picture of servitude. The heart of her master trusted in her.

As I was thinking of this, I heard God speaking to my heart. She is a picture of the delight that you bring Me when you come to me with a heart of glad surrender and willing submission.


Several times this month, I also had the chance to meet with my friends Rosemarie, Alberto, Gina, Tina, and others for a time of listening to the prophetic messages God has spoken over our nation, and responding in a time of intercession. God is doing a new thing in me, in my family, in our nation. He is looking for those who will respond in obedience, not be hampered or hindered by self-focus or personal goals.

After a time of intercession with dear friends in Manila

God is looking for those who are willing to set aside personal goals to accomplish the higher goals of His kingdom. While it is important to be a good steward of our homes and family responsibilities, God is showing me that these things can be done without making them the priority and without sacrificing the greater plans He has for the advancement of His eternal reign right where I find myself.


On January 29, I returned to Bacolod to be part of the ministry team for a two day seminar that we conducted with the junior high school students of Trinity Christian School. For two days at the end of this month, we did The Question for Young Women at this school. Right before our eyes, we again saw how God set many young people free from their wrong perceptions. God allowed shaky foundations to be dismantled and lovingly brought many of them to a place of building their hope on the solid rock that is Jesus Christ.

Posing with my small group
Front: Christine, Krystel, me, Ruth, Shanice
Back: Rovimel, Kyra, and Trisha

With the junior high school students of Trinity Christian School
after the two day seminar, The Question

So many beautiful lessons...

God wants me to be aware of His moves...

He is calling me to live the examined life... to live my life in the light of His presence!



In the days to come I will take time to post pictures I have taken to go with this end of the month entry.

Indeed, what a wonderful way to start this new year. I name this month Taking Off.

Yes, I am taking off... I am entering my Jeremiah 33:3 season...

Call to me and I will answer,
and show you great and mighty things you do now know.

And yes... in this season, the Holy Spirit is pouring the overcomer's anointing into me!

I received this book as a Christmas present all the way from VA, USA, from my best friend Melanie.

A Sacred Journey

Coconut trees at the Bacolod-Silay Airport
taken upon my arrival this afternoon

Gratitude is an art of painting an adversity into a lovely picture.
- Kak Sri




Let another man praise you and not your own mouth;
A stranger, and not your own lips.

- Proverbs 27:2




Do all things without complaining and disputing,
that you may become blameless and harmless,
children of God without fault
in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation...

- Philippians 2:14

In my very first post for this year, I wrote of the special start of the year retreat that my friends and I had at Sonya's Garden in Tagaytay. From January 3 to 5, we were privileged to experience the presence of God in our midst, and we received a fresh word from Him.

God is true to His promise, if we seek Him, we will find Him. But He will not come in the way we expect... for God is indeed the God of the surprise visits. He will come in His own way, and He will say what needs to be said.

He cannot be manipulated... controlled... or forced to fit into our man made molds.

After being in Manila for nearly a month, I arrived back in Bacolod City this afternoon.

Our plane was parked a few meters away from the terminal building and we had to use the stairs to disembark. As I was walking toward the building, I glanced up at the sky and saw a beautiful rainbow. Quickly, I took my camera from my backpack, hoping to get a shot of the rainbow, but I was stopped by an airport security person who was making sure that nothing obstructed the smooth flow of runway activity.

Whenever God wants to speak hope into my heart, He sends me a rainbow.

Thank you dear Father for that message of hope. It is clearly a sign of Your care and love for me.

He knows. The past days I have been asking Him for something tangible, something to encourage me, and give assurance to my heart that He is doing something in the midst of my circumstances.

Show me... I had been praying.

Show me, Lord, that my present circumstances are a means for my transformation and growth, a means for Your glory to shine through.

When I saw the rainbow this afternoon, my heart leaped.

Through the years, God has been teaching me how to be thankful for the smallest thing that comes my way, be it good or "bad" ... the slightest irritation... the unexpected interruption... the sudden twist in the circumstances of my life...

Every disappointment is God's appointment!

I thank God for taking time, for the methods He uses, to build His character into my heart... to teach me how to be set free from the prison of a demanding, complaining, and fault finding spirit...

Indeed, it is a lifetime process...

The Godhead - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - have a school where they teach their willing students the way out, a pathway through any storm or difficulty, a school called adversity.

Adversity is not always as bad as it sounds. Adverse circumstances can be as simple or as small as a certain plan or expectation that doesn't happen the way we want them to.

There is always another way... a better way. In the "either-or" situations of our life, God always has a third alternative, and He is seeking those who will walk down the path of obscurity and servanthood with Him.

He has taught me and yes, I have learned, to welcome adversity as a friend.

This is the journey I am on, my sacred journey.

Becoming more like Him and less like me.

That He might increase, and I decrease.

That His my will, not mine, be done in my life.

It is not an easy road to travel, but I have discovered that God walks with anyone who chooses this path.

I do not want to grow old having become so used to always having my way in anything... and turn out to be a demanding taskmaster in the lives of people around me...

My desire rather is to be a gentle touch, a kind word, an understanding, compassionate heart.

A breath of fresh air!

Changing the environment with my presence... never drawing attention to myself, but becoming a signpost for others to see the Father!

My heart a reflection of the Father's heart.

I want to train my eyes to see what is right and good around me, not what is wrong...

To be able to say... "It is good enough, and now I will enjoy my rest... tomorrow is another day."

To enjoy and savor each moment as it comes, even when hard work is being done, to be able to do it with gladness and a song in my heart ...

That others may drink from my well... and find rest in my healing presence.

Father, help me to be real, to be open with my flaws and my shortcomings... and not try to hide my woundedness.

We may fool others, window dress our spirituality, sugar coat our words, pretend to be kind, or generous.

But God can never be mocked. He sees right through us.

In this season I'm in, Father... I hunger for more of You.


Are You with me? Am I on the right track, Lord? Or have I lost my way?


Then He opened my eyes to see that beautiful rainbow this afternoon... A timely reminder of His promise.


Thank You, my dear Father for speaking to me so tenderly.

Setting the Tone

At Sonya's Garden Country Bed and Breakfast
taken by Lidia, January 5, 2012

In that day the LORD of hosts will be
For a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty
To the remnant of His people,
For a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,
And for strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

- Isaiah 28:5, 6

It never ceases to amaze me that God has continually given a sense of direction by making me aware of the changing themes and seasons in my life.

For the past two years, I had started the year by visiting my dear friends Ut and Oy in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I called it my "sentimental journey" because Chiang Mai was the lovely and memorable place where Ernie and I spent the last year of his earthly life together. Less than two months after we returned to the Philippines in 2008, Ernie went home to heaven.

Returning to Chiang Mai a year after Ernie passed away proved to be beneficial. It gave me a sense of closure, something that could only happen as I re-visited the familiar places that we loved and re-lived the many memories that we made together in those places.

My Thai friends and I parted ways last January 2011 with the understanding that we would see each other again one year later.

Sometime in mid 2011, however, I had a sense that Thailand was not going to be part of my 2012 journey. And I was right.

Because of the severe flooding that affected Bangkok in October and November last year, Ut's parents had to move in with them in Chiang Mai in November. They were tied down with family concerns, and we all agreed that a trip to their place this new year was out of the question.

Unknown to me, God had something different planned for me for the start of this new year, something I never expected or even asked for.

A few days after Christmas, my friend Rosemarie invited me to be part of a personal retreat that she and her daughter Donna were planning for early January this year. I welcomed this invitation with gladness. In response, my heart resonated with a deep y-e-s.

What made it extra special was the fact that my other dear friend Tina was also invited to be with us.

God brings people into our lives for a purpose, and these past months, I could tell that a special kingdom connection was forming between me and these special friends of mine.

On January 3, I was on board my dawn flight back to Manila. The year was so fresh, and my heart was filled with excitement, even though I had no idea about what God was going to do during the personal retreat.

Rosemarie had asked me to share with them whatever it was that God was putting on my heart.

It isn't easy to give words to my feelings these days.

The day before I left, I put away the tree ornaments - all by myself. Without fanfare or much ado. It felt like Christmas came in unannounced, and quietly left, without saying goodbye. We did not have much time to enjoy looking at the Christmas tree this year. And even though this tree continues to remind me of our past Christmases, somehow this year, it stood in its corner, so humble and unassuming. Never demanding to be noticed.

And now, suddenly, the decors were being taken down and stored, until the next Christmas season.

I wasn't unhappy, but there was a tinge of sadness in my heart.

I felt tired of the fleeting and the temporary, felt a kind of homesickness... for something more permanent... something more eternal.

As I packed my bags for my flight, my two dear dogs were on the bed, looking up at me with a quizzical expression on their faces, as if to say, "Leaving again?"

Really, I found myself smiling. Just that afternoon my second grandson Elijah was holding on to me, not wanting to let go... and it's been a while since my first grandson Matthew and I read a book together. These children grow so fast, I thought to myself.

But yes, I had to go, for there was a divine call and assignment that I could not ignore.

As the plane took off, there was an inner prompting on my heart. A voice seemed to say, "Unholy alliances."

I sat up and paid attention. Is that You, Lord?
There was a soft reply, Yes... talk to them about unholy alliances.


The plane landed a few minutes ahead of schedule. I took a taxi to my daughter's pad, and upon reaching it, a simple breakfast prepared by her maid Irene was ready, for which I was grateful.

I hurriedly packed a few clothes in my backpack, and about an hour later, Donna's driver arrived to pick me up. There was a sense of quiet anticipation as we headed toward Tagaytay, a lovely city south of Manila situated on the top of a hill. One of our country's top ten destinations, it has a scenic charm all its own.

We were booked for two nights and three days at Sonya's Garden, a Country Bed and Breakfast place located within a rainforest that Sonya has transformed into a magical getaway.

Below are some of the pictures of the lovely time we had together. The photos will speak for themselves.

But I must mention here that God spoke powerfully to all of us during the devotional and worship times. He did speak clearly about repenting of the unholy alliances that we may have unknowingly entered into, an example of which is found in the story of Joshua and the Gibeonite deception narrated in Joshua Chapter 9.

God is moved by our repentant hearts. When we entrust our relationships to Him, and in faith choose to honor and remain faithful to the covenants we have entered into, He will come to our rescue and bring redemption to these difficult relationships though it may seem that these have somehow ensnared us, or hindered us from moving forward. The story found in Joshua Chapter 10 of God helping Joshua and the Gibeonites win the battle against the five Canaanite kings was a perfect example of this.

My heavenly Father planned this start-of -the-year retreat to bring refreshment. The past months, as I had shared in bits and pieces in my blog posts, I had been through many changes; and whether I was aware of it or not, the truth is that I badly needed a time of respite and reprieve.

The good food that was available to us in abundance, the kindness of Donna in treating us to a relaxing experience at the Nurture Spa on the afternoon of our arrival, the cool climate, the lovely and comfortable setting, a feeling of kinship with my dear kingdom friends, the healing presence of God through the worship songs, and through His word, the partaking of the Lord's supper on the last day of our retreat ... all these and more were put together by God to give each one of us just what we all needed.

What a wonderful gift God gave to set the tone for 2012!

Rest... renewal... restoration... provision... beauty...

Because the number 12 has such an important place in the Bible, the year 2012 promises to be a year of fulfillment and completion.

Twelve is a perfect number and signifies governmental perfection. As this year starts, my prayer is that God will redeem me, my family, and those I hold dear in my life from whatever unholy alliances we have entered into. I am believing and declaring that God will indeed rule the affairs of our lives this year.

This is a year of freedom!

He who began a good work will bring it to completion!

He never leaves a work He started half done!

On the morning of the last day of our retreat, Tina and I woke up early and had an awesome time of worship. God did grace us with the beauty of His holiness and the gentleness of His spirit in our midst. There was so much freedom to worship Him at that early hour, and I truly appreciate how God showed Himself to be so real in my life - His presence was almost tangible!

Those three days in Tagaytay were undoubtedly ordained by God to show me that this is the theme of my life this year - restoration, renewal, completion, fulfillment!

Yes, the Holy Spirit is doing a new work in me, and He is pouring the new wine of restoration... and the renewed wineskin of my heart is being made ready to receive it!

And let the beauty of our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our hands for us;
Yes, establish the work of our hands.

- Psalm 90:17

Day 1 - Lunch at Sonya's Garden

Tina's country bedroom



Walking on healing stones at the Nurture Spa

Feeling so relaxed and rejuvenated fter an hour and a half of massage at the Nurture Spa


Our shower area - so beautiful!



Fresh flower petals at a corner of the shower area

Sea shells on strings


beaded gauze curtains




assorted dinner ware for the guests' use


dining room

entrance to our cottage


Day 2 - fresh mangoes for breakfast



Day 2 - dinner at the Verbena Cafe, Discovery Suites



Rosemarie, Tina and me - kingdom friends


"The Fondue Alliance"- that's us!



another cottage at Sonya's Garden


This is the cottage where we stayed

A pebbled footpath leading to a secret garden


Donna


Day 3 - Breakfast



Communion on the last day of our retreat


Tina


Tallit - Rosemarie's prayer shawl


Mother and daughter

Three friends


Three friends - Donna, Lila, and Jennifer


Donna and Rosemarie after a time of blessing




A few parting shots before leaving Sonya's garden