The PF Women Team at our Annual Team Retreat ~ 2018 Today on Seth Godin's blog, he said: It's tempting to decide to make a profit first, then invest in training, people, facilities, promotion, customer service and most of all, doing important work. In general, though, it goes the other way. Yes, it does. If you are waiting to make a profit before you do these things, in my experience you're not going to make a profit. So many organizations, ministries and churches are struggling with financial issues. I know your pain. As anyone who follows our story knows, our ministry was in a ton of debt four years ago when I came on as director. Since that time, we've gotten out of debt and turned a profit every year. God has done amazing things through out team, for which we give Him the glory! I find that what Seth is saying here is absolutely true, with one disclaimer. For Christian leaders, spiritual disciplines must always be first. Before we started i...
One of my really awesome friends is Pastor Tara Sloan who now pastors out in Chicago with her husband, Pastor Craig Sloan. When we first met, I lived in Maryland and she lived in Florida. I was thinking when I moved here that we'd be a lot closer but then she moved...bummer. We have known each other um...I guess about eight years ago or maybe a little more now. I'll briefly tell you the story of how we met, and I think I'm going to introduce her to you even more later this week maybe in a little interview. But for now...
Tara found my pastoring partners website years ago. She began reading it and felt like she was reading something she wrote herself. She instantly knew we were going to be good friends. I have a lot of people who write to me and say that. (What can I say, I guess I'm ultra cool?) It's amazing the number of people who say, "I've read what you've written and I just know God has called us to be best friends." That usually turns me off to an incredible degree and sometimes makes me feel like I'm dealing with a stalker or something. I usually avoid such people and write them off as kooks as soon as they write me and tell me, "God told me I'm your new soul sister." Don't mistake, I have met A LOT of very good friends online who are now more than just friends over a computer such as Pastor Lisa, Pastor Leanne, First Lady Ronnelle Brunswick and a lot more. The web is a wonderful way to connect with people and through my pastoring partners ministry I've met so many wonderful women who have become "in person" friends, some of the best I have. But the thing is, it takes time to develop a friendship and it always freaks me out when on the first day of somebody reading my stuff they write to me and tell me we are to be siamese twins, bonded for life. So anyhoo, here's what happened in this case...
Tara wrote me an e-mail that was just a paragraph (very non-pressuring) thanking me for the website and saying how much it ministered to her. And, she said, "we're a lot alike, I think...." and sent me some things she had written. When I downloaded and read her stuff I had this weird feeling like, "I feel like I'm reading my own writing..." it was uncanny how alike our thinking was. I mean, we seemed to eat out of the same box of Cherrios if you know what I mean. So, suffice it to say I was so impressed that I called her up and was like, "Oh my.................we DO have a lot in common." I instantly knew I had met an incredible kindred spirit. That was then and we are still thinkin' alike today and great friends. There's a lot more to it than that, I have so much to share about her and our friendship but maybe in a little interview upcoming I'll share further. I do encourage you to check out her blog in the meantime.
To set up what I'm about to say I want to tell you, however, that, Tara is gifted prophetically among her many other gifts. She preaches, teaches, she's a prolific writer and she directs dramas and is basically what you would call a perfect wife to Craig and mom to five incredible girls and truly I can't even list all her talents here. Most of all she's an incredible passionate worshipper and seeker of God. At significant times in my life she has given me a Word and without a doubt each time it has been so "on"...I can hardly even writes this without crying because at strategic times she has given a Word in due season and it's mind-blowing how things have resulted. It's not like this is all the time that she just throws stuff like this around. It's always something birthed in intercession and when she seeks the face of God. But anyway, last week I got an email from her and she said this to me, and I just thought I'd share it here... because I was so excited to read this!! I am ready, ready, ready! I can't wait to see what God will do. Maybe this word will come to pass in Africa this year?
Deanna, I could actually see you "flowing" about and this incredible "cloud" hovered above you. I saw you pacing the platform with a holy vengeance interceding, preaching, and crying out. The atmosphere was intense. With each word that came out of your mouth I saw this cloud drop lower and lower. The more the cloud lowered, the more people began to respond. In a matter of seconds, this "cloud" encompassed your entire being. A roar was rising out of you that was literally like a "magnet" that was pulling people to the altar. As they came they were falling on their faces and weeping before the Lord. As you ministered I saw the cloud that had swallowed you begin to be deposited upon every person you touched. Then I heard the Lord say the following: "I am about to manifest my power in Deanna and all that she touches in a supernatural way. The Holy Spirit has been hovering above her, waiting to wash over her. An anointing unlike any she has experienced is hovering right above her head. It is moving with her, it is eagerly anticipating My Word that will release a flood of power in and through her. Tell her that I have heard every cry of her heart, tell her that my Word is very much alive in her, tell her that I have heard her cries of, "When? When? How much longer?", and My answer to her today is "NOW, NOW, NOW, NOW!" Doors that have been closed are about to spring open. Dreams that have been in a "paused" mode are about to live. Tell her to get ready for what she has tasted, what she has sampled is nothing compared to the feast I have prepared as her destiny! "
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