Power Up and Feel Alive
Are you really ready to learn how to lean into this year with the expectation that God is going to power you up with new energy, new zest, new zeal, new enthusiasm and a richer joy for a new year! A crisp new canvas to let God paint the masterpiece of His vision and His plan. He has already made a path for your life, so will you step out from the dark shadows of fear, unforgiveness, pain, brokenness, betrayal and lack of purpose and worth - onto a path, the path God established long before you were born.
Come On! Leave the dark and reach for the light!! Join in now!
Diana’s Notes
Alive in 2025
Welcome to 2025!! Can you believe it?? I can’t! But, here we are so let’s really learn to lean into this year with the expectation that God is going to power us up with new energy, new zest, new zeal, new enthusiasm and a richer joy for a new year. A crisp new canvas to let God paint the masterpiece of His vision and His plan. He has already made a path for our lives and let us step out from the dark shadows of fear, unforgiveness, pain, brokenness, betrayal and lack of purpose and worth and onto a path, The Path, God established long before we were born.
Verse - NLT
Psalm 139:16: You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in Your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
WOW! Every day God laid out for us to walk in before He even gave us life, but, we have to choose to follow Him, His path -
A path that He will light as we learn to step out in faith knowing He’s got our back. I guess it is our faith fall - you know the one, where we have someone standing behind us who we are supposed to trust as we fall backwards into their arms. But! With God, we can trust Him and if our relationship with Him is broken, if we lose our hope and confidence, if we know longer cling to our trust in Who He says He is - then our path becomes filled with rough places that we try to navigate through in the dark. We might come through, but experience a lot of troubles and woes that were not ours to carry or go through. As the saying goes, don’t go borrow trouble - and when we are determined to live at the controls rather than trusting God and asking Him what His plan is, we often borrow trouble,I know I did!
We are going to sorta circle back to when we first started our conversations here on Heartfelt Conversations with Diana, back to KNOWING WHO GOD IS! The ONE TRUE LIVING GOD, because it is only when we KNOW Him, and KNOW who we are in HIM and to Him, can we begin to let His light shine through us. And it is His Light that is our Power Source - if we are going to POWER UP! If we care about Coming Alive in 2025, then we are going to have to be connected to the One True Power Source of our very life, the One Who actually breathed LIFE into our body, the breath of life that gives us the gift of a new day.
Verse - NLT
Genesis 2:7 - Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground, He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.
And , as we talked about in recent episodes, Jesus is the Light of the world
Verse - AMP Bible
John 8:12: Once more Jesus addressed the crowd. He said, “I AM the Light of the world. He who follows Me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of Life.”
That is such a promise of hope to stay strong. If we will be humble enough to follow Jesus, He promises we will never be without the light of Life!
But, Jesus went back home to be with the Father, and prepare a place for us so that when the Father tells Him, Son, go get your bride ( that’s us, the body of believers), but until that time - that day - we are to carry on - to continue to carry the torch, the light, the good news of the Gospel. We are to be the light that distinguishes itself as the opposite of darkness.
Verse NLT - this is Jesus speaking on how believers are to live
Matthew 5:14-16:
You are the light of the world- like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that - everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
We are to learn how to follow Christ’s examples - to be followers of Christ. A person might ask, where is he leading us?? Good question?
Do we ask the same of the world, or our world of influence? Where are we being led? Are we living a life that we know God is leading or are we leading a life that we control, other people control, the world controls? I can only tell you, that when I started trying to please people and fit into what the world says, I became lost, very, very lost. And very, very dissatisfied with my life.
Verse on the wrong path to destruction in the AMP Bible
Matthew 7:13-15: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad and easy to travel is the path that leads the way to destruction and eternal loss, and there are many who enter through it.
Did you hear, the broad, easy path that most people will choose leads to eternal loss. That eternal loss is your life. You will be forever separated from God and eternally be surrounded by absolute darkness, void of anything good or of God.
Same verse in the Message translation
Matthew 7:13-15 - Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life-God!- is vigorous and requires total attention. We must learn to follow Jesus, He leads us on the right path. The path that leads to the Father, to eternal life, and Jesus is the ONLY Way there is to eternal life.
Verse NLT
John 14:6: Jesus told them, “I AM the way, and the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me.
Jesus is the Gatekeeper of the who’s and whose not’s. The A list that we want to be on!!!
In the Old Testament people followed rules, regulations. What started out as the Ten Commandments that God gave Moses in the book of Exodus
But, because of greed, power, self-seeking ambition and the hearts of men left to themselves rather than humbling themselves before God, The religious rulers and leaders throughout the Old Testament turned these few basic common “Love your neighbor and God” type of laws, into so many ridiculous hoops to jump through that no human being alive could ever fulfill them. But that was the whole point of the Old Testament, God needed us, people, mankind, humanity, to learn, recognize and understand that we can not earn our way to heaven, to God, to eternal life. Everyone wants eternal life because no one wants to die - Duh! God created us with a desire to live
Verse - AMP Bible
Ecclesiastes 3:11: He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in it’s time. He has also planted eternity ( a sense of divine purpose) in the human heart ( a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God)- yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from beginning to the end.
We will never discover the mystery of our divine purpose or satisfy that longing that remains tucked deep away if we continue to exclude God from our plans, because His plan - should be our plan and that plan includes a wonderful, satisfying eternal life with Him.
In our holiday season episode we spoke of an Old Testament verse from the prophet Isaiah -
Isaiah 9:6 For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Jesus was born to fulfill that verse, to fulfill all the laws that prevented people from being reconciled to God as our Creator and then transferring our citizenship from here, earth - that will be destroyed one day and if we have sown ourselves into the fabric of earth and not placed our treasures in heaven - then everything is in vain. If you want eternal life - and not be separated from God into eternal darkness -There is only one Path - Jesus
Verse from NLT
Colossians 1:13-14: For He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His dear Son, Who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.
Jesus fulfilled all the laws required to be blemish free, spotless, pure, holy, before God and He grew up to become our Living Sacrifice so that all those who would come to believe and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, would share in His inheritance and become adopted sons and daughters of the One True Living God
But it begins with God. If our belief system, if the foundation on which we build and structure our lives is not set on Jesus, our Cornerstone, our firm foundation for everything we do and establish our lives on, then we will be off track, off target, we will end up going in the wrong direction and one day, like me, you “accidently’ find yourself lost in the wilderness with no compass on how to get back on the right path. Jesus is our Compass. And Jesus is the perfect Compass, the perfect Cornerstone for us to build our lives on and allow Him to lead us on this journey called life because He knows the Father, and the Father knows Him. We can not fully know One, without fully knowing the other
Verse from the International Standard Version
Matthew 11:27: All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one fully knows the Son except the Father, and no one fully knows the Father except the Son and the person to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.
When we earnestly want to know God, to embrace a relationship with Him and trust His Son and follow Him, then His Son will reveal the Father individually to us. Person by person. Glory by glory. As we learn, Jesus reveals.
If we can get this foundation right. If we can grasp it and grab hold of it, if we will learn to follow Jesus as He guides, then even in our dark days- He will turn into light, He will make the rough places in our lives level ground.
He is our Firm Foundation - the Cornerstone on which to begin building on for 2025. God promises us that He does not go back on His Own Word
Isaiah 42:16: God’s Word Translation
I will lead the blind on unfamiliar roads. I will lead them on unfamiliar paths. I will turn darkness into light in front of them. I will make rough places smooth. These are the things I will do for them, and I will never abandon them.
This is the promise God has been fulfilling in my life as I am learning to earnestly seek Him, and through our humble, honest, sometimes hard, heartfelt conversations here, on this podcast, it is my prayer for each one of us to fully lean on Him and Learn to Trust Him and Follow Him as He directs our steps
So, as the old Nestea commercial used to say, “are you ready to take the plunge?? Will you set your mind to be determined to stay the course, to Trust God, that He is God and He Only tells us the Truth so that we can be Free -
Before we can build or rebuild, we have to get our foundation properly set and that begins in our minds. What is it that we believe. It all begins with believing, and Its time to declutter the mutter - all the negative, self-defeating , useless self-talk and stinkin’ thinkin’. If our minds are full of junk then we have no room for the treasure. So, come back next week and we will dive into our first baby steps into learning to be the light and that is making sure we are on the same page as God , that we don’t follow group think, or dark thoughts or checking off a bunch of religious tasks list that will have no healthy benefits for our life and will lead us deeper into the darkness;
but rather in 2025 we will become Alive - alive in the LIght! And, then, we will naturally become a light of hope out of the darkness to those around us.
Prayer
I have put a link to Pastor Annie’s message -One Way: The Light of the World - on the notes for this week.
You can find the link of the message on -
Heartfeltconversations.com -https://www.heartfeltconversations.com/
Along with a couple of resources to help you get your mind back from the enemy of darkness:
There are a few listed on the website, but we are all so different so someone I like, might not do it for you - LOL I hope one of these resources will begin to help transform your mind to the mind of Christ Jesus.
NOW:
May the LORD bless you and protect you,
May the LORD smile on you and be gracious to you,
May the LORD show you HIS favor and give you HIS peace(Numbers 6: 24-26}
Walk in the Light! God bless and see you next week !
Joyce Meyer: The Mind is a Battlefield - https://joycemeyer.org
And a few other links as well
Steven Furtick: Triggered Taking Back Your Mind in the Age of Anxiety
JimmyEvans: The time is Now to Change Your Attitude
https://endtimes.substack.com/p/the-time-is-now-to-change-your-attitude
Beth Jones: Getting a Grip on the Basics is a great resource to help you get the basics of how vital you are to God and how good He desires to be to you
https://www.thebasicsuniversity.com
Songs to inspire you
Breathe / What A Friend I've Found - Hillsong Worship
breathing the breath, matt redman
Consumed By Fire - First Things First (with lyrics)(2022)
Foundation Verse
Romans 8:11
The Spirit of God, Who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Chrisr Jesus from the dead, He will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living in you. “
Additional Resources
Prayer of Salvation
Jesus has given salvation, healing, and countless benefits to all who call upon His name. These benefits can be yours if you receive Him into your heart by saying this prayer:
Heavenly Father, I come to You admitting that I am a sinner. Right now, I choose to turn away from sin, and I ask You to cleanse me of all unrighteousness. I believe that Jesus rose again from the dead so that I may be justified and made righteous through faith in Him. I call upon the name of Jesus Christ to be the Savior and Lord of my life. Jesus, I choose to follow You, and I ask that You fill me with the power of the Holy Spirit. I declare right now that I am a born again, child of God. I am free from sin and full of the righteousness of God. I am saved in Jesus’ name. Amen.
This prayer and the comment above, were taken out of the book:
Secrets to Powerful Prayer - Discovering the Languages of the Heart
By Lynne Hammond and Patsy Cameneti
If you have just received Jesus as your Savior, please write Lynne Hammond Ministries at:
PO Box 29469
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55429-2946
Or, email one of the ministries listed on the Additional Resources Tab and let them know that you are a brand new christian and need some direction on the next steps for your new life in Christ.
Or email us here at Heartfelt Conversations with Diana and we will pass along your information for you.
Congratulations if you are a brand new Christian or if you have Returned Home! Welcome!!! Get in God’s Word and get it into you!
Diana’s Home Church:
Valley Family Church - Pastor’s Eric and Alexa Jones
www.valleyfamilychurch.org
Other recommended Jesus-centered churches who teach the True Word of God:
Elevation Church - Steven Furtick
https://elevationchurch.org/
Joseph Prince Ministries - Joseph Prince
https://www.josephprince.org/
Joyce Meyer Ministries
https://joycemeyer.org/