2011 Life Vision Casting

 Habakkuk 2:2-."Then the LORD answered me and said, "Record the vision And inscribe it on tablets, That the one who reads it may run"


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


Proverbs 29:1- "When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful."


Jeremiah 29:11- "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."


Most of us spend more time planning a menu or entertainment than we do our lives. It is amazing the way people wake up and just bumble through life day after day and only a crisis or life running off the rails gets our attention and makes us examine how we're living. May I encourage you today? First, pray and invite God to help you through this task. It may not be easy and may invoke some pain (which is why people avoid it). Once you've prayed, spend some uninterrupted time examining your last year of life in these areas: relationships (with God and others), work, finances, spirituality, physically and mentally. Write down what comes to you and how you feel about each area. Looking back will help you realize your history is doomed to repeat itself without intervention. Planning or vision casting is the best way to intervene in your life not coasting or being on autopilot. 


Here's how to vision cast---remember, what you celebrate will increase so as you've reviewed the good things in those areas of your life spend some time thanking God and praising Him for those things. Seek to know what did you do repeatedly to get there and see how you can maximize those efforts this next year of life?  If you're unhappy with any area of life what do you need to do to gain change in that area? Write those things down in steps. For example, finances is an area where many of our lives are off track. We need to live within our means and use the right methods and tools for us and our priorities to manage our finances. What do you need to do to learn your money style, how you earn it, spend it, save it and what can help you in doing those things better? Once I've done my written history and cast my vision for the next year, I then like to get visuals for these things and create a vision board with just the pictures and one sentence for my goals/plans under each picture. Record these things in a way that matters to you because you'll be changing and  it will be evolving all year long because we know the only thing constant in life is change and the best laid plans do get changed rather we like it or not but that should not keep us from planning our way, amen?




Once you're done with this process let's pray again and invite God to approve, remove and show you the motivation behind each of the things you've written down. Use this list all year long, set an appointment on your calendar to review your vision board (weekly, monthly) to move your life along in a way that recognizes time is the only thing you don't get a "do over" with--once time is gone, its gone, so use all the time you're given living a life that matters. Beloved, I'm praying with and for you!

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(c) Copyright 2010 Cheryl Carr and ARETE1 International.

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FILL HER UP!

Ephesians 3:19 (New International Version)

¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Jeremiah 20:12 (New International Version)

¹² LORD Almighty, you who examine the righteous
   and probe the heart and mind,
let me see your vengeance on them,
   for to you I have committed my cause.

Psalm 26:2 (New International Version)

² Test me, LORD, and try me,
   examine my heart and my mind;

How diligent are you at examining your life? Not from a crisis standpoint either--its usually only then that we will examine ourselves and usually that's a little late...but, how often do you look over your life to see exactly what is in it--the good, the bad and the ugly? Personally, I like to get silent and in solitude and put my life under a microscope regularly with the Lord. Its not time-consuming nor is it discouraging. Its the best thing I can do for myself. It is a check-point to see the course of my life and encourages me to empty out what's not good for me and fill up with what IS GOOD for me. I've found in my life if I don't spend time doing this I get on auto pilot, taking on a lot of good sacrificing the best, accomplishing things daily but not really moving forward and most of the time forgetting God/our relationship in the process.

When I coach people to perform this simple act self-examination, to get silent and in solitude over the course of a day or a weekend most often they will throw up lack of time, can't get alone and/or they flat out don't think its necessary. They will claim to know what's going on in their life full well. Trust me I tell them, "no, you don't or you wouldn't have these lingering and consistent issues." Truth is silence and solitude terrify most people. The need for noise to drown out reality, distract and entertain ourselves is rampant in society. See, what you won't confront you won't change. Not really. You may temporarily adjust behavior around a crisis but until you empty yourself of the root causes of your behaviors you're doomed to repeat and repeat and repeat. Its of vital importance to ask God to examine you, to probe your life and pull out the root causes of situations and circumstances that are causing your life to stay off track. He will, you know? Sadly, most of us want to keep the people and things in our lives because of comfort or perceived loss (losing what hurts you or isn't for you isn't really loss, its really gain).


As 2010 comes to a close I encourage you to not follow the usual path of new year's resolutions and only looking over your life/goals when there is a crisis. Resist gradualism, be deliberate and sit silently for a minute and make a list of what is going on in your life by issues most important to you. Once you have that list bring it before God, read scriptures, listen and pray. Make decisions and decide how you will manage those decisions. Take action and be proactive in your life so its full of good and empty of that which causes you stress/is bad for you. It won't just happen, you will have to do something! Beloved, I'm praying with and for you.

Please feel free to forward CEENOTES with Cheryl Carr to friends and colleagues, but please forward in its entirety. CEENOTES with Cheryl Carr is written and distributed by Arete1 International.


(c) Copyright 2010 Cheryl Carr and ARETE1 International.

Squinting in Mountain Top Sunlight

Duet. 34:1-Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the LORD showed him the whole land--from Gilead to Dan,

Luke 6:12-One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night




Have you ever turned on a light in pitch blackness and had it hurt your eyes so that they began to tear up? Did you blink and blink so as to get your eyes to adjust to the light that chased away the darkness? Do you, like me, love the sunlight peeking through the clouds after a storm (as a Kansas born girl trust me I know storms). Being in darkness so long, have you longed to see lights beauty, its intensity and brightness so vivid it'll make you shade your eyes and squint to keep from taking in all the sunlight at once? Beloved, that's exactly how I write this blog today.

Mountains and climbing are great examples for life and its many tribulations. Hands and feet are necessary for climbing and they're symbolic in this spiritual teaching. If you're climbing and you're weary may I share something I've learned that may encourage you? They're not easy but will make you a better climber sure to reach the top. Jesus frequently climbed to a mountainside when praying and meditating. Your hands represent what you hold on to and your feet represent where you go--- where you place your self. In times of storm and climbing up the rough side of the mountain simplify and prioritize. Empty your hands and watch where you settle down during your climb. You can't climb loaded down and you're going to need your hands and feet properly placed for sure climbing. I've learned to empty my hands and trust God to fill them. Let go of what you're holding on to...things, people, memories, un-forgiveness, despair, lack of hope...whatever it is let it go! Give it to God. Tell Him you don't want it anymore and He can take it. Holding on to things/people/situations too long is man's perilous behavior. Look around and you will see people parked on a mountain they were supposed to climb. If you don't cooperate with God He will let you have your will/way.  Its never good if God has to pry your hands loose from something, He can and you won't like it. God is thorough, both predictable by His word and unpredictable in His sovereignty. Depending on your need---He will do what's best for you if He sees in your heart a need for prying away of things... you will let loose or wish you had of. Easier just to lay it on the alter in the first place. Trust me! Obey and surrender. Take care where you go and who you go with during your storm. Most people neglect this very important behavior. Jesus was our example and separated Himself from people and only had those assigned to Him around when He was on the mountain. Everyone can't go with you where you're going and that's hard to take. Don't run all over looking for comfort either telling everyone about your troubles. Few have the stomach to really be there for you and sacrifice for your neediness and all you're doing is feeding them food for gossip. People will either add or subtract. Be on alert for the "lookie-lou's" too, only hanging around to see what may go down with you. Pay them no mind and do your best to silence their noise in your ears. You need to listen carefully for God's instructions on what to do and how to do it. You can't do that listening to naysayers and negative influences.

I'm on a mountain top after a year and a half of acute and severe testing of my faith. Up on this mountain top I am squinting in the Son's light--- and its marvelous up here...now. But oh the ragged climb up has been arduous, discouraging, humbling and tortuous. At times, I didn't think I would make it. But make it I did! May I encourage you today? You will too. If you're climbing, keep at it until your feet touch sod at the top. If you're up there with me now, bask a minute and praise God for His goodness...mountain top experiences are fleeting and absolutely no where for comfort but do take a respite and enjoy the view (and prepare for the drop kick off the side that life is sure to deliver soon, its just life huh? In a storm, coming out of one or about to go in yet another one...sigh). I am praying with and for you!

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(c) Copyright 2010 Cheryl Carr and ARETE1 International.

ANT ACTIVITIES

Proverbs 6:6-9 "Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest" 


3 John 1:2- "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much"


I've loved ant farms and hills since I was a child. Identifying with the ant has been a natural example God has used mightily in my life for powerful spiritual lessons. The ant has taught me a lot...it is a little creature but so industrious and here are examples others use to teach us about the ant that I hope you'll take heed of. The ant is: 
1) self-motivated, highly industrialized, doesn't need another to make sure it gets its work done. 

2) collects its food in the proper seasons; it is prudent.

3)  fond of its young, and takes care of them.

4) has foresight for others and shows kindness.

5) works quietly without show and until the work is done. In this, it teaches us perseverance.

6) works in cooperation and organization with others. In union there is indeed strength.

7) keeps its home meticulously clean.

8) knows its job and does it.

9) has initiative, that wonderful virtue of resourcefulness that knows the how and when.

See what a great example the ant can be if you heed its behavior and begin today to incorporate these things as a part of how you live your life? 

As a life/spiritual coach I frequently have to deal with individuals wanting more in their lives. They're unhappy and dissatisfied with where they are and so my job is to help them apply discipline (people hate it:) to move forward. Its hard because few want to be faithful/disciplined right where they are as if getting more will miraculously make them something other. Getting more when you're unable to handle what you all ready have is destructive and God simply will not hurt us like that so stop begging for more dear heart. You have to change right where you are then watch God give you more! 

I preach Luke 16:10 to myself and others everyday because I've learned a powerful lesson in my relationship with God about obedience. He will get your attention in an area that matters to you a lot. He'll put you in a very constricted place- for people who want money you'll be broke all the time, for those who want better relationships you'll be loveless/friendless until you learn dependence on people must be under God's leadership not feelings or even them, if you want to be a leader, you'll be jobless or in a subordinate position until you learn a leader is first/foremost a good follower...whatever it takes to break you, you'll be where you cannot progress until the lesson is absorbed and applied right there in that particular class room. He's an excellent teacher. Faithfully putting you right back at your last place of disobedience until you learn or give up and accept life there which God will turn you over to your own will if you demand it and refuse to reach for His reaching. For example: wanting to be in college when you're just in the fifth grade seems so childish and illogical to us but that's how many of us live. We want God to give us millions when we're unfaithful with the hundred dollars we have. We want a mansion when our apartment is filthy and unkempt, we want a Rolls Royce when we can't keep our Corolla clean and in running order. Beloved, I want you to prosper even as your soul prospers (3 John 1:2). People look at my life, how God uses me, where he's brought me from/to, some even are fascinated with the material things God has given me in spite of my upbringing (people think I'm rich/have been that way all my life but hey...I'm really not...yet. I just have access to things strictly from OBEDIENCE TO GOD). I am no more special to God than you are, but one thing I may do that you may want to accept and apply in your life is that I know I have to obey Him in the hard place. Discipline myself, denying myself and patiently waiting on HIM to move me. If you want His plan, His way that's just how its done because His ways are not our ways and His blessings have no sorrow added to them (Proverbs 10:22) and that's the difference from when He blesses or we bless ourselves which is how most of us do live, claiming its a blessing when that thing we manipulated, connived and finally got for ourselves is really a curse and its fruit reveals itself eventually. Try a different approach. Ponder this blog. Accept it. How about applying to your life the activities/principles/behaviors of the ant, submit/obey right where you are today? I am praying with and for you!

Please feel free to forward CEENOTES with Cheryl Carr to friends and colleagues, but please forward in its entirety. CEENOTES with Cheryl Carr is written and distributed by Arete1 International.


(c) Copyright 2010 Cheryl Carr and ARETE1 International.

COURAGE IS A MEDICINE

Duet. 31:6- Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."


Hebrews 3:6
But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.


In my lifetime I can't remember so many people living in such fear, unsettled and unstable just hearing about the downright disturbing occurrences in so many places. Seems our hearts are weak with fear. What we've counted on has failed us or is no longer reliable to make us feel secure. Beloved, we need to hold on and take courage! In my own life I can assure you God has promoted and placed me in places and doing things I could never have imagined in my wildest dreams. Sometimes, the things I need to accomplish scare me silly. I spend a lot of time with God, silent and listening because I know I can't do much in my own strength. Scripture tells us we are capable of a little strength of our own (Rev. 3:8) and we operate in that little strength most of the time when ALL STRENGTH and all the COURAGE we need is available for the taking.


Something about me that spending a little time with me will teach you is that words are important to me and I don't think they're to be taken as lightly as we do-- I'm as guilty of this as they come because I love to communicate (I talk a lot especially thinking out loud and in times when I'm emotional...words will pour out of me and few understand this about me but--sorry, its how I'm wired) and I love to KNOW what a word means in as many translations as I can take in because it deepens my understanding and I want to understand and speak words of life over my self and others. I will study one word deeply--in many languages because all spoken words have a root and frequently I've found in English its watered down or far away from what it meant originally. Its why I study Greek and Hebrew in relation to the scriptures. I'm always amazed at what a word really means as opposed to what I thought it meant.


So, what is courage? Courage is a quality of spirit that enables you to face danger or pain without showing fear. Fear of something can make you withdraw, keeps you from and keeps you in situations that you should not be in. Lack of courage must be confronted--all throughout scripture this is a command spoken to us directly by God. TAKE COURAGE can be found over and over in the holy scriptures and I submit to you that you must take courage like a medicine!  All medicine is not fun to take, in fact, few medicines taste good or feel good but take it you must to restore health and promote healing. Now please note, the medicine of courage God provides is not like man's synthetic attempts at healing...remember doctors practice medicine, God IS HEALING. KNOWS ALL and CANNOT FAIL. The courage He provides is exact, equal to the need in quantity and in quality. Take the time to get in the Word, read it, and ask how does it apply to the area of fear you are experiencing? Accept it as true and take it in, allow it to encourage you and reduce your fear.  It will do more than help you. It will heal you. I'm praying with you and for you!






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Come Here Wounded Woman...

James 4:7-8 "So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he'll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it's the only way you'll get on your feet."

Proverbs 31:25 (NIV)- "She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come." 

We are many we wounded women. No need to discuss how we got this way, just pick up a magazine and you'll read well our dissatisfaction with every area of life...we're just not satisfied, fulfilled or getting what we need in any way. We're limping along in life, self-medicating, repeating the same pattern in relationships, work, how we eat...living life with a screen-door of pain over the entrance to our hearts. Come here. Sit down with me for a second. Let's cooperate with God. Aren't you tired of the tears in the night, the inability to change and the sad commentary that "you're crazy" because you are an emotionally crazed person constantly in a manic state, driving the people you love away or making them walk on egg shells...yes your pain is making you do the fool over and over and over again...or, are you like me, great at pretending, smiling, saying the right things until that scab is rubbed off of that wound that you keep hidden behind your pretty facade? Oh I know I'm in your business but I want to help you, help me, help us. We can be healed you know? And its not about time. Time doesn't always heal but GOD DOES! I've experienced most of my revelation of a wound and a cleaning up of the wound in short periods of time. I'll say it again, WE CAN BE HEALED. Completely restored and reset to an original starting point as a woman of strength and dignity.HOW BADLY DO YOU WANT IT? First you have to recognize your state and acknowledge it before God. CRY OUT and call it what it is. Quit faking. Quit pretending and putting a band-aid over your "pain cancer." We have to cooperate with God and want it more than that man, the food, the drink, the stability (changing causes chaos and disruption of everything) and looking like we're "spooky spiritual."  


We're wounded and we want to be healed. That requires desperation and obsession with getting it from God alone! Yes, when I teach this I'm told "Cheryl, it doesn't take all that" but I'm telling you depending how deep your wounds run (and mine were deep stronghold wounds), YES IT DOES TAKE A DESPERATE OBSESSION WITH GETTING HEALED. Haven't you been desperately and obsessively wounded? Just this week I was even told to quit ministering and giving out advice from someone I thought loved me and appreciated the transparency I shared my past/pain with them through--they even blocked me from their FB page (and it was perfectly fine because they were believing a lie, never read or commented on what I wrote anyway, no big loss). I've learned, the enemy of our souls wants me silent because every single one of my messages has been meticulously tried out on me FIRST before I share. They're real. I don't preach lofty, high things. I preach right here in the trenches, the muck/mire with you. I risk acceptance to be real and know the enemy will use even the very elect to try to stop me. There is no perfection in me to try and tell you anymore than this is what happened to me and here's how I deal.  No worries about me stopping no matter who tells me to. Won't happen. God has called me as His mouthpiece. I'm running the race, will speak as led with no fear. I can't be stopped in pain/silence, so I'm sitting right here, typing this blog in some of the greatest pain I've had in a long time. But...speak to you I will if you will but listen?

Because you can't love without vulnerability and trust-- wouldn't you enjoy some insulation, not self protection? Wouldn't you like that pain/hurt/wound to be a message you finally get/listen to and CHANGE FROM? It can happen only one way. Submit to God FIRST. Cry out to him in the midst of your pain. Quit running to a man. Quit running to that next relationship. Quit running to the club or a book (unless its the bible) or what someone else says or any of the things you've done to date that HAVEN'T WORKED. Yes, you may have salved your wound but wouldn't you much rather have the doggone thing healed? I'm not a Pollyanna either, I know there are some scars that will remain (you don't want to know my pain sister, we can compare burdens and I'm sure you'd look over mine and pick yours right back up again). Get alone. Get silent. Get on your face. Tell God all. Leave nothing out. He will listen to every word and you can't shock Him. He all ready knows. He gave you free will so that you can CHOOSE HIM. He desires that from you and then you know what...you'll be a wounded woman no more. 


Reach for God's reaching dear one. God is a master surgeon and His hands are gentle. It won't be easy but your healing will be thorough even if its a process. Sometimes God will lift what ails you immediately. Other times He will leave it and bring you through it. Whatever He does, however He does it its for the best and for your good. Submit to His way and listen, obey His instructions. As Max Lucado said it best..." God doesn't improve. He perfects. He doesn't enhance. He completes. Not better, not improving, not on the upswing" GOD COMPLETELY HEALS. Beloved, I'm praying with you and for you. 

Please feel free to forward CEENOTES with Cheryl Carr to friends and colleagues, but please forward in its entirety. CEENOTES with Cheryl Carr is written and distributed by Arete1 International.

Fight Deception!

Luke: 21:8- He replied: "Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and, 'The time is near.' Do not follow them."


James 1:16- "Don't be deceived, my dear brothers."




Pretension and deception, deceit, bluff, mystification, subterfuge, acts to propogate beliefs that are not true, or not the whole truth (as in half-truths or omission), employing slight of hand, distraction, camouflage or concealment.  Living like this...deceptively--is rampant in this world and few if any live above them. Lying and cheating is de jour...even in the Church which should not be but truth is its like breathing to us to be deceptive. You have to FIGHT IT, crying out to God to expose it in every shape and form because it is so prevelant and hides itself so well only HE can expose it fully.  


Personally, I have deceived and have been deceived. Horrified and hurt I've been when someone I trusted turned out not to be worthy of that trust and most of all I've terrorized myself with the comfort of lying to myself and others! If you're a deceiver rarely do you like the covers snatched off your cozy little deception..most do the fool when exposed, self included. The warmth of your lies are too toasty and fun and exciting and you feel you've gotten away with them. Alas, the truth of the matter is God hates lying! HATES IT! How can we be so comfortable with something God hates? Beloved this should not be. In fact, God commands us not to be deceived so you KNOW He never wants us to deceive anyone for any reason. He says in Ps. 51:6  "Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom." 


If you need to meet truth and abandon deception for good join me in praying for God to help you fight it in every area of your life. I warn you...this will make things bony and stark in all around you! God peels back every ounce of untruth and lays it bare and its ugly and no fun at all. There may be people you are trusting in that God shows you they're not honest and are not to have your trust and it will disappoint you to your core because how could they lie to you and have you believe it so completely?  He will more than likely start the process with you first and foremost so be prepared to see YOU. Real and raw. The first cut is the deepest and soon you will see all that you need to see. You may have to sit someone down you've deceived and come clean which is excruciating but, so worth it (yes, I've had to do that and had to LISTEN while someone I trusted gave up their lying). Just remember, GODS HANDS ARE GENTLE. He is the master surgeon and when he exposes deception in your life and in YOU He will also train you in truth and free you completely from lies for good. Do you want to go there? A place where you don't lie and can't be lied to? I said can't because since I've gone through this process of constant prayer to fight deception and lies rarely can someone get away with lying to me at all and never for long. If you're truthful and seeking to bring truth in every situation you have all of heaven supporting you because its rare but so needed. God will bring all of heaven to bear in bringing you the truth of a matter and it will be amazing to you to watch Him do it. If you desire to be blessed as far as I know the only great blessings from God, His very best blessings depend upon the level of truth you give and live. FIGHT DECEPTION BELOVED and He will help you do it every step of the way. He is ever faithful! I'm praying with and for you.

Please feel free to forward CEENOTES with Cheryl Carr to friends and colleagues, but please forward in its entirety. CEENOTES with Cheryl Carr is written and distributed by Arete1 International.


(c) Copyright 2010 Cheryl Carr and ARETE1 International.