Keys to Ignite Your Creative Divine!

A few years ago, I was commissioned to transform two white kitchen columns in a beautiful lake home in North Carolina. As was my usual custom, I prayed and asked God to guide my hands and inspire my work. I was especially nervous because this was being filmed for a special segment on a local interior design television show. 

Drawing upon my previous training and practice, I moved forward to lay down the first brush stroke with anticipation of something beautiful. My purpose when creating art is to partner with God to fill the earth with creative things that glorify Him. In essence, to leave a lasting aroma of His love and joy that flows from the piece long after I'm gone. What was truly shocking to me was just how beautiful it turned out.

I say this not to crow about me, but to illustrate that there was something truly "divine" going on - and it was fun! I stepped back and remember saying, "Wow, there you go again, God. I'm just not that good...!?" My heart was full; my client was delighted! In fact, she broke out the champagne and we celebrated! Joy and love were in the air. 

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Partner With Him In The Creative Flow

I'm not limiting this to just painting. All artisans... writers, inventors, painters, innovators, thought leaders, musicians, engineers, and problem solvers... I would argue that we are all artisans.

• Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

• Genesis 1:27, "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."  

• Exodus 31:3-6, "And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship. And I, indeed I, have appointed with him Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and I have put wisdom in the hearts of all the gifted artisans, that they may make all that I have commanded you."

God absolutely wants to shape things on the earth through us. We are his hands and feet to get stuff done - to partner with him in his purposes! Isn't it so COOL to know that he actually downloaded wisdom into the "gifted artisans" to build the tabernacle?! I can't read this section of the Bible enough!! I love to pray and ask God to download ideas into my heart, and you can too! God has been co-creating with his people since the beginning of time! God is the idea generator and the beginning of all things. We were created in his image and out of Him we create. Wow! We actually get to fill our realm of influence with His creativity - to shape the atmosphere for his glory! 

So What Can You Do?

1. Get Training: First, get practical. If you have a special interest, take a class, read a book, and begin to hone your skills. Practice. 
    
2. Prepare The Atmosphere: Ask God to download into your heart all manner of wisdom for the project. Ask him for innovation, ideas, and wisdom. Pray over your space and invite the Holy Spirit! Ask him to flow through you. Listen to your favorite worship music and get ready to receive all that he has for you. He is the originator of all things. 
    
3. Receive from God & Speak Life Over Your Project: Prepare to receive from the Lord! He is such a good and loving Father! Scripture tells us he will not give his children a stone when they ask for bread. It is his heart to flow through you to minister his love to others. Prepare to receive his love as you simply can't give away what is not in your heart. Guard your heart and forgive offenses: Proverbs 4:23, "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."
    

[This Week's Prayer]

Holy Spirit, come. I invite your amazing presence into my life this week! I ask that you would fill me with the Spirit of God: in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship. I want to partner with you so that this world would be filled with the things that you want on display for your glory. So that people will be drawn to you and come to know you as their King! That the atmosphere would be changed as I lean into your creative problem solving. I anticipate abundance, innovation, and joy to flow through me and follow me this week! In the mighty and precious name of Jesus Christ, amen! 

Be Inspired!
Kelly Roberson
Find out more OR to receive my FREE "Weekly Prayer and Coaching" post, click here: http://kellyroberson.net/contact/ 

The Secret Ingredient to YOUR Resilience

Isn't it true that the best story-lines are filled with regular 'ol citizens who turn into heroes by overcoming "never-saw-that-coming" plot twists, uncertainties, and evil villains? 

WELCOME to the first installment of weekly posts that are intended to rekindle HOPE and ignite FIRE within a woman's soul! 

Everyone has a story. So, where do we find you within your story today? Is this a harvest season of abundance - or a long, winter season of quiet waiting? Some of you are struggling with your purpose and direction. Some with health and financial challenges. Some of you have dared to take hold of a life long dream, only to hit a brick wall. Some are celebrating as the door of abundance has finally been unlocked! The truth is, there are seasons. There are times of lack and there are times of plenty. How do we navigate them and keep our sanity?  

If you pulled back the curtain to my life's show this year, you would have seen a roller coaster of emotions: fear, panic, joy, praise, denial, hope, trust and peace. This summer I was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting Multiple Sclerosis. Also this summer, after thirteen long years of waiting for God's choice of a husband for me, I was engaged to the love of my life! Talk about plot twist! WHEW! You see, life happens. It's how we cope with things that makes us resilient - or not. Resilience is how well we "bounce back" from tough circumstances. My sweet friend, do you want to be resilient? The secret ingredient is to first place all your hope and trust in Jesus Christ - this is the FOUNDATION of resilience. 

How can we pray? Do not pray by looking at the problem - pray looking at Jesus. When you pray towards your problem or challenge you are making it an idol. What we focus on enlarges - it expands. We want to enlarge and expand JESUS and all His might power! Set the problem to the side and set your face toward Jesus. From another perspective, according to James 1:2, we can also consider it "great joy" when we face various trails because these things are maturing us so that we lack nothing.

[This Week's Prayer]
Father God, I pray this week that I would come to experience the vast, incredible power of your majesty. I lay all my life's burdens and plot twists at your feet. I ask that you show me How mighty you are in a tangible, real way. I ask you to show up in my life as the King of the Universe - and the Lover of my soul. I pray for your supernatural resilience as I put my hope in you alone. When I think about the fact that the train of your robe fills the whole temple, I fall on my face to worship your majesty! (I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Isaiah 6:1) You are worthy to be praised because you are a good Father and it's in your nature to provide for me! I anticipate your miraculous ways in my life this week! Let my life be a beacon of light for other's to see that would glorify you! Amen.

Kelly Roberson
Certified Life Coach
Rekindler of Hope & Fire-starter within Women's Souls

Never Forget - His Covenant

It started out as a good day - a day without drama. We were living in the hill country of San Antonio in 2001. I had just dropped off Leigh at her safe, sheltered, Christian school environment and was headed to my first ever "professional faux finishing" class. I was so excited to be trained by a master artisan from Rome, that my mind was swirling with anticipation! However, like most families, we were hiding our on secrets and trying to stay afloat. I was listening to K-love cruising down highway 281 into the city from the Stone Oak area when suddenly the dj stopped the music and said, "We need to pray right now, it looks like a plane just hit one of the twin towers." By the time I arrived at the studio, he announced a second plane had hit.

I sat in my car paralyzed in fear. Like most married women, my first instinct was to call my husband, and then I called my parents reaching out for some sense of reality and assurance. It was surreal... I collected myself and made my way into the studio with the others. We were in shock, but decided to "carry on" in some kind of feeble attempt to cope with the current unknown.  And so we painted samples... I began to trowel Venetian plaster and pray. Layering and troweling with the radio in the distance set to low.

In just a short time later they would announce a third plane crash and things began to literally collapse - NYC was on fire. All airlines were grounded. I was called to come pick up my daughter. As a parent does, I kept calm and assured her of her safety - all the while wondering if we were "next." As I prayed and glued to the TV non stop throughout the evening, I was compelled to share hope with my new friends the next day. I scrambled together a teaching on the different covenant names of God - I had been clinging to these names in my quiet time. I was attending a study called "Prayer Portions" by Gloria Gunter - what most of my close friends have come to now know as my purple binder.  A study that I would eventually bring back to SC and share with others who needed the same hope I did as we were quickly moving towards divorce - a time that seemed to parallel current affairs of shock and betrayal. Even in the midst of my own pain, it was a privilege to share hope with my fellow artisans from different backgrounds and different parts of the country. We gathered around the table with paint on our hands and looked up to God that day. We came together as one. 

Incredibly grateful to all the first responders - saddened by the horrific loss of so many - our country changed forever that day. Who do you turn to in times of grief or anger? God will always be our first responder and we can count on him in these times. "Our covenant with God was established in the once- for-all-sacrifice of the lamb. The New Testament reveals his fulfillment of these in action." So, when your world is rocked upside down, never forget His covenant names with you. If you proclaim Jesus Christ as your God and your savior you are in a beautiful covenant relationship - and that is something never to forget! 

 El Nissi: God is our Banner of Victory
 El Rohi: He is our Shepherd
Jehovah Jireh: Our Priovider
Jehovah Shalom: Our Peace
Jehovah Rophe: Our Healer
Jehovah Tsidkenu: Our Righteosness
Jehovah Shammah: God Who is There
Jehovah M'Kaddesh: Our Sanctification 

...never forget...  

-Kelly Roberson

Beauty

I've noticed that when I'm around certain significant people in my life, I walk away just feeling beautiful - a glow that only deep, "safe" friendships can produce. That beauty is a physical manifestation of what's happening on the inside. To be accepted and known. To be allowed to be authentic. Frown lines disappear, eyes that were once guarded are now open and ready to receive. Even in the "messy hair" moments you are at peace with your beauty because there is acceptance... however, it will always be limited because the source is still lacking.

God's presence: I believe this is a taste of what's happening when we allow ourselves to experience the quality friendship of the creator of the universe - God. Except this is a divine relationship to the highest power that can't be limited. "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends..." (John 15:15) There is just something that happens when we spend intimate time in the sanctuary of our King - our Father. We emerge with a glow - a peace that no one can take. "Honor and majesty are [found] in His presence; strength and joy are [found] in His sanctuary." (1 Chronicles 16: 27) Don't be scared to "go there." He is waiting for you in the sanctuary. There is no lack in a moment with our King. The overflow of His glory and majesty is a brook of acceptance and unconditional love for you. Peace, courage, joy, love, hope create a divine inner beauty that flows outward. So take a minute and just "be" - and you will come out beautiful... a reflection of His beauty and unconditional love... xo

Kelly Roberson, MA, CMHC
Therapist, Life Coach

Do you ever feel guilty because you don't read your Bible "long enough"?

Have you ever heard someone say, "If we spent as much time in the word as we do getting dressed in the morning, we would really be somewhere!"? Well, I was thinking about that condemning statement this morning as I just finished an hour of "getting ready for work" and grabbed my Bible to just have a taste of my Father's words before recklessly flying out the door onto the speedway of Charlotte morning traffic. Feeling guilty that I should have gotten up earlier and should have, could have and would have. I was actually already humming "Blessed be your name..." then I randomly flipped open to Psalm 113 and this is what my eyes landed on:

"Praise the Lord!

Praise, O servants of the Lord,
Praise the name of the Lord!
2 Blessed be the name of the Lord
From this time forth and forevermore!
3 From the rising of the sun to its going down
The Lord’s name is to be praised.

4 The Lord is high above all nations,
His glory above the heavens.
5 Who is like the Lord our God,
Who dwells on high,
6 Who humbles Himself to behold
The things that are in the heavens and in the earth?

7 He raises the poor out of the dust,
And lifts the needy out of the ash heap,
8 That He may seat him with princes—
With the princes of His people.
9 He grants the barren woman a home,
Like a joyful mother of children.

Praise the Lord!"

Uuummm wow and beautiful-ness.... My heart melted and God's glory immediately flooded in. The fact that 30 seconds in God's word (spiritual realm) is WAY more powerful than 30 seconds in our physical realm. His word is exponential. His word pierces joints and marrow. It is everlasting, and all consuming. It is timeless and limitless. 

Blessed be the name of the Lord!
 - Kelly Roberson 

The Remnant

Repost from November 15, 2012

An open letter to the church. My beloved friends, the time has come when we cannot operate under the shingle, “business as usual.” I know it’s hard in the new season because it is so unfamiliar. Our childhood memories of the American flag, sweet tea and an underlying respect and honor for what our founding fathers penned “One Nation Under God” is disappearing fast into time’s rear view mirror. There is a distinct line in the sand that has been drawn through our land. It is time to put away self-deception and ignorance.

I wish that things would just get back to normal. Normal is a lie. Life is organic. We must learn to be so in tune with the still small voice of the Lord that we adjust as needed. There will always be new strategies, new weapons, and new elements in which we are to navigate this Kingdom-story and the critical role we are all assigned. Bend, flow, listen, go and be flexible.

We are called the remnant and should be reminded that the way is narrow according to Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

So, with that said dear friends, I am calling forth the remnant to rise up! You will not be in the majority – that’s ok. You will be cornered and mocked – that’s ok – shake it off. We forge ahead gleaning the fields because our God is Lord of the Harvest! There are many precious new souls ready to be embraced by the Father’s love. So, our work is a privilege and people are watching. Be strong and courageous because someone’s life depends on it.

This is our wake up call to come out of our slumber. To know God’s Word and live it out loud. It is a mysterious adventure! We can walk with confidence knowing that we are on the winning team! It is an honor to stand for Truth. 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “ All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Be love, be light and transform your atmosphere.

Prayer:  I pray we lace up our Gospel shoes of peace and be armed with the Word of God, pulling down every stronghold that rises up against it. I pray that miracles would surround us as we go in faith. I am thankful that the very same power that raised Jesus Christ from the grave lives inside of us! I pray that we would overflow with the love of Jesus Christ and His Truth – allowing us to be a force that sends waves of His presence wherever we go today. Amen. 

~ Kelly Roberson

Overcoming Anxiety, Fear And Panic

The power of deep breathing is a critical tool in your tool belt of coping with life's stress. It will allow you to overcome panic, anxiety and pain in a matter of minutes. Begin this technique the minute you feel anxious. Also, do this two times a day regardless of anxiety, not only will this technique lower your heart rate, but it will increase oxygen to your brain resulting in increased creativity and clarity. The easiest way to do this is to focus on an object in the room (or you may close your eyes and imagine your favorite thing or place that you are grateful for) and breathe in through your nose for 5 seconds, out through your nose for 5 seconds - for 5 minutes. This process is called "5 in 5 out."

Check out this short video clip on how this technique worked for Dr. John Assaraf' during a visit to the dentist:  http://www.praxisnow.com/wealth/overcoming-anxiety-fear-and-panic

Have a blessed and creative week!
Kelly 

Powerful Scriptures

Powerful Scriptures Create New Neural Pathways 
(thought patterns in the brain) 

When we speak scripture over our body and situation, there will be a shift in the atmosphere... scripture is LIVING AND ALIVE! 

John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God.

Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Proverbs 18:21
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.

Proverbs 23:7a
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…

Philippians 4:8-9
Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies. (The Message)

Deuteronomy 30:19
This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.

Isaiah 43:18-19
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

1 John 4:18a
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear…

Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Proverbs 16:24
Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

2 Corinthians 10:5

The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity. (The Message)