And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13
The most prominent concept I have learned on this journey is love. Love is absolutely amazing! God is love (1 John 4:8) and God is perfect!
When God called me to quit my job He also told me to leave most of the ministry work I was involved in. The hardest one to leave was the Mix at Church in the Son (the youth group for middle- high school students). I started attending the Mix right after my huge encounter with God and since then I have grown up and been cultivated within that ministry and was a youth leader from January '11 to December '11. I have such a deep love for the kids and also the amazing leadership team and pastors. It was heartbreaking to leave but God is ALWAYS good! Always! His goodness does not depend on my feelings, Hallelujah!
I would always tell my girls in the Mix: Any of your doing should flow from your intimacy with Jesus; your ministry should be an overflow of your alone time with God in His presence and come from His love. I imagined January as this blissful month of just worship and alone time with God. Instead I came to the realization that I was running on fumes. It was hard to just be with God. It was awkward. My friends Tristan and Jackie helped me see that I had this false mindset of thinking that I had to work for God in order for Him to want to spend time with me. That is such a lie! Jesus died on the cross for relationship; He tore the veil for intimacy, reconciliation with you. True ministry will always flow from the place of intimacy. It won't get you to the place of intimacy. His love on the cross was enough. You don't have to add to the finished work on the cross. Thank you God for showing me this! Hallelujah!
Jesus died on the cross for all of humanity. He died for you and He died for me. He overcame death and was given all authority in Heaven and on earth; and He gave that authority to us. There is not one person who Jesus did not die for. No matter what you have done or what has been done to you: Jesus died for you, because of His immense Love for you!
God is revealing His heart... He loves. He loves the prostitute, He wants her to know that she is worth so much more. He loves the rapper on BET, He wants him to know that God is His true father and He has eternal riches for him that will never fade away. He loves the man on Wallstreet. He loves the children in the slums. He loves the millions of children who are in sex-slavery. He loves President Obama, He has an amazing plan for him and I pray that he walks in it and knows the true love of Christ! What would happen if instead of criticizing them and telling them what they are doing wrong.... What if we loved them? What if we spoke life over them? Jesus died for them! I never came to Christ because of people telling me what to do; the only thing that brought me to repentance was experiencing the true love of my Heavenly Father. The kindness of God leads you to repentance (Romans 2:4).
The deeper I get in the heart of God, the more I want to show His love to the broken, abused, forgotten. I want to look into the eyes of the child left on the street and say "You are loved." I want to spread the good news! The love of God, displayed on the cross.
In His Love,
Reida
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Faith Walk
For we walk by faith, not by sight.
2 Corinthians 5:7
I would like to start off with the only appropriate beginning: God is amazingly, beyond anything ever seen or heard, awesomely, beautifully, faithfully, gently, mightily GOOD!! Like, for real! The point of this blog is to keep everyone up to date on what God is doing in my life. I was supposed to start a blog a year and a half ago but, if you know me then you understand why it never happened (I have recently been set free of procrastination) ha! Which means I need to give some background information.
I went on my first missions trip when I was 10 years old and went back to the same place at age 11. I went to the Dominican Republic and Haiti to minister to children in poverty and do street evangelism. That's when I was called to be a full time missionary.
As a teenager I went on two more missions trips to the Bahamas and Spain.
I went to the University of South Florida from 2007 to 2011 majoring in Psychology. By this time I had long forgotten my missionary calling and was more focused on pursuing the American Dream: Make lots of money and be happy! Holla! My plan was to go on to get my PhD and be an Industrial Organizational Psychologist (the kind that makes the most money) and do missions and counsel troubled & pregnant teens on the side. Half way through partying (with a little school on the side) God reminded me that I am a full time missionary. WHOA! Talk about God never changing! I thought I missed out on that calling 12 margaritas ago. I remembered the children, and decided to try to walk in my calling. After failed attempts of putting rules on myself and getting involved in any ministry at church that would let me in (while still partying)- a year and a half later I was just frustrated. I really didn't get "the whole God thing." I was good at being "Christiany" though, complete with Bible verse Facebook statuses and motivational talks with friends telling them what not to do. [My following posts won't be this long, please bear with me- I am almost to the good stuff.]
After the earthquake in Haiti in January 2010, my passion for missions was reignited. I cried nonstop as I watched the footage of those beautiful people who lost everything. I tried to go on a trip there during spring break but it didn't happen. Finally one day I prayed, "OK God, I can't try anymore. It hurts too bad. Take it. I give you Haiti and Dominican Republic." The next day my friend's mom invited us on a medical missions trip to the Dominican Republic and Haiti! Yeah, God!
July 2010 I had a huge encounter with God that changed my life. The moment I experienced the true love of God- the world no longer appealed to me. I was physically healed of anemia and other female problems. I was emotionally healed of rejection. I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and Fire! Hallelujah! God redeems! He gave me His purpose: pour His love on the nations.
By March 2011 I was back in Orlando, FL working as a receptionist and volunteering as a youth leader at Church in the Son. God told me to leave school and move- so I did!
I went on three missions trips from August 2010 to August 2011: Dominican Republic/Haiti, Guatemala, and Dominican Republic again. On all three trips I witnessed God's love poured out through physical healing, emotional breakthrough, physical provision, and most importantly- salvation. One amazing example of His love expressed through supernatural healing was at a disabled children's hospital in Santiago, Dominican Republic. My friend Mark and I were praying over a beautiful girl who had been crippled since birth, she was about 12 years old and had never stood up in her life. After praying over her and loving her for about an hour- she jumped up with her hands in the air! The orphanage workers were amazed at the miracle. Hallelujah!
God continuously rocks my life and blows my mind. God told me to quit my job in December and go into full-time ministry in January. That is where I am now :) Full time with my Jesus! I am leaving soon to the nations. Stay tuned :) Please comment this or e-mail me ReidaPipenha@gmail.com to get more updated details and prayer requests. Thank you! I love you all!
In Him,
Reida
2 Corinthians 5:7
I would like to start off with the only appropriate beginning: God is amazingly, beyond anything ever seen or heard, awesomely, beautifully, faithfully, gently, mightily GOOD!! Like, for real! The point of this blog is to keep everyone up to date on what God is doing in my life. I was supposed to start a blog a year and a half ago but, if you know me then you understand why it never happened (I have recently been set free of procrastination) ha! Which means I need to give some background information.
I went on my first missions trip when I was 10 years old and went back to the same place at age 11. I went to the Dominican Republic and Haiti to minister to children in poverty and do street evangelism. That's when I was called to be a full time missionary.
As a teenager I went on two more missions trips to the Bahamas and Spain.
I went to the University of South Florida from 2007 to 2011 majoring in Psychology. By this time I had long forgotten my missionary calling and was more focused on pursuing the American Dream: Make lots of money and be happy! Holla! My plan was to go on to get my PhD and be an Industrial Organizational Psychologist (the kind that makes the most money) and do missions and counsel troubled & pregnant teens on the side. Half way through partying (with a little school on the side) God reminded me that I am a full time missionary. WHOA! Talk about God never changing! I thought I missed out on that calling 12 margaritas ago. I remembered the children, and decided to try to walk in my calling. After failed attempts of putting rules on myself and getting involved in any ministry at church that would let me in (while still partying)- a year and a half later I was just frustrated. I really didn't get "the whole God thing." I was good at being "Christiany" though, complete with Bible verse Facebook statuses and motivational talks with friends telling them what not to do. [My following posts won't be this long, please bear with me- I am almost to the good stuff.]
After the earthquake in Haiti in January 2010, my passion for missions was reignited. I cried nonstop as I watched the footage of those beautiful people who lost everything. I tried to go on a trip there during spring break but it didn't happen. Finally one day I prayed, "OK God, I can't try anymore. It hurts too bad. Take it. I give you Haiti and Dominican Republic." The next day my friend's mom invited us on a medical missions trip to the Dominican Republic and Haiti! Yeah, God!
July 2010 I had a huge encounter with God that changed my life. The moment I experienced the true love of God- the world no longer appealed to me. I was physically healed of anemia and other female problems. I was emotionally healed of rejection. I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and Fire! Hallelujah! God redeems! He gave me His purpose: pour His love on the nations.
By March 2011 I was back in Orlando, FL working as a receptionist and volunteering as a youth leader at Church in the Son. God told me to leave school and move- so I did!
I went on three missions trips from August 2010 to August 2011: Dominican Republic/Haiti, Guatemala, and Dominican Republic again. On all three trips I witnessed God's love poured out through physical healing, emotional breakthrough, physical provision, and most importantly- salvation. One amazing example of His love expressed through supernatural healing was at a disabled children's hospital in Santiago, Dominican Republic. My friend Mark and I were praying over a beautiful girl who had been crippled since birth, she was about 12 years old and had never stood up in her life. After praying over her and loving her for about an hour- she jumped up with her hands in the air! The orphanage workers were amazed at the miracle. Hallelujah!
God continuously rocks my life and blows my mind. God told me to quit my job in December and go into full-time ministry in January. That is where I am now :) Full time with my Jesus! I am leaving soon to the nations. Stay tuned :) Please comment this or e-mail me ReidaPipenha@gmail.com to get more updated details and prayer requests. Thank you! I love you all!
In Him,
Reida
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