Dream Breakers..Heart Chasers..

Dreams.

Favor.

Life.

Love.

There is a quote by C.S. Lewis that I saw earlier this week that really stuck with me it quite simply stated:
     
          He who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only.

He who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only..Wow.. that's one I have to read slowly and quietly and over again. What's sad, is that most of us don't believe that..because if we did we would live very differently. I heard a well known fighter named Forrest Griffin say something on a podcast the other day that really stuck with me.. I can't quite remember the exact question he was asked but it had something to do with accolades and awards and if he were to go on and train again and win again..how would it make him feel.. and his reply was "The extraordinary becomes ordinary" He went on to say that he had heard several guys say after they had won huge fights that they felt no different. He said we all expect to "feel" different when we get to a certain place in life whether in award or stature and you don't necessarily. It's not to say that hard work is wrong at all! Work hard be the best you can be but realize that if your identity is in what you can accomplish you will never be fully satisfied.

Which brings me back to my original intent of this blog, we have been conditioned to believe in our society that once we reach a certain spot on the ladder we will be satisfied. Once we get accepted in that certain group of individuals we will be satisfied. Or hey what about this once we get Married our needs will be met.

False.

I think marriage is great just like the next person but it has become such a main focus in the Christian community that in a lot of ways it has caused us to forget our first love.

Here's a thought: What if you, yes you, never get married?

It's a weighty statement I get it.  The Lord gave me a heart for marriage at a very young age.. I mean young young age. However a few weeks ago I found myself in a situation where I sensed that the Lord wanted me to use Hannah's example and give Him back the very precious gift He had entrusted me with and to leave it in the temple..to leave it in His courts.

If you are unfamiliar with the story about Hannah you can find it in 1st Samuel starting in Chapter 1.
To give you a brief synopsis Hannah was barren and brokenhearted for she deeply desired children weeping and crying out for the Lord to open her womb..

     She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. And she vowed a vow and said, "O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life..

So it goes on and the Lord granted Hannah's request and she honored her vow. When Samuel was weaned she brought him to the temple and left him under the care of Eli whom was a priest. Can you imagine though, for years and years and years she had wept and cried out for a child and she finally gets what she desires only to turn around and not get to raise him. If I put myself in that moment I wonder what it must have felt like the moment Hannah left the temple. Was she moved with emotion? Was it hard for her to walk down those steps and not run back in as she heard the cries of her child? Probably so. However she had made a vow of obedience and now she was honoring it, and that is so powerful. Obedience is key, always.

So I became like Hannah and I layed down my rights to marriage. I recognized that my ultimate call in life, my ultimate destiny is Jesus.  I get the honor to live life with the King in His temple, in His courts. He satisfies me. No, I mean really..He actually satisfies me.

    You make known to me that path of life; You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Psalm 16:11

So I encourage you, especially if you are young, to go on an adventure with the King. Fall in love with the King. Place your identity in the one who wrote out your days. Stop waiting for a significant other to do for you what only Christ can.

Love is here. Love is now. His name is Jesus.

Cheers to 50!!

25

Hmm..where to even begin. 

This 24th year alone of my life has blown my brains out of the water. 

I was stretched so far by the Spirit of God and I have been on so many different adventures.. it's crazy to think that they were all packed into a 12 month package. One of my closest friends from high school stopped by the shop where I work today, and before she left she hugged me and said "be sure to tell me bye before you leave Texas again, I just never know when you are going to just leave." I laughed ..because if you know me well ..you know that I am a nomad at heart. Where the spirit of the Lord is there is always an adventure.. and when He barely whispers my name I ride the wind with Him..most of the time not having a clue what to expect in front of me. 

& I have loved it.

Every second of it

.

In 24 years filled with hundreds of adventures with my King every second has been an interesting feat. 

I have wept at His feet.. a lot.

I have laughed with more joy in my heart than I could contain.

I have been blown away by His goodness.

& I have been surprised by His love.

I have gone places I never expected to go and lived places that I didn't know I would leave. 

I have experienced His fullness..even when His fullness didn't look or feel that full. I have tasted and seen that He is good. 

The most exciting part though..is that the best is yet to come. 

In my 24th year..

I joined a travel club in February

Quit my big girl job in March

Packed all of my stuff in Denver and started driving..with little direction on where I would land..

Went on an insane road trip from that moment on..

Denver to Oklahoma

Oklahoma to Arkansas

Arkansas to Orlando to hang out Universal Studios for a few days to support Chatfield Poms at Nationals..yeah Krista Van Allen and I ate a lot of Nachos that week..they were delicious. No regrets:)

Left Orlando..went to Jacksonville for a few days..Left Jacksonville went to a little town outside of Destin called Crestview..for a month..

In April I then headed back to Jacksonville for an event with Margolee..

Then Margolee and I drove from Jacksonville to Dallas..I stayed in Dallas for a month..then decided I needed to see Denver one more time before I fully committed to leaving it in the dust..so I went back to Denver for the month of May

June

 I drove back to Dallas.. or (Forney) I should say;) house sat for the Carrolls and watched their kids for a week! (That was fun) then I got a text from a friend.."Hey are you free next Tuesday" .. yep..what's up.. "wanna go to Haiti?" Oh yeah lets just go to Haiti..so we did..but before that I flew to Puerto Vallarta for vacay..to go enjoy myself at a 4 diamond resort..yeah that was AWESOME!..then I got back and had like a day before several individuals that barely knew each other got on a plane to go to Haiti. Went from Haiti back to Jacksonville..(at this point I've lost count as to what month it is) to help raise awareness for what our eyes had just encountered..was in Dallas for a small minute (a few months) before I went back to Jacksonville for a month..prayed a lot..then I came back to Dallas..and the year is not even over yet..

So cheers to 50! 

Cheers to the 25th year of my life, that I truly believe will be the most interesting of them yet..(& that's saying a lot) 

and the 25 that follow because who says that you can't follow the formula of the Spirit of the LIVING God and enjoy every morsel of your time here on this beautiful planet that He has entrusted to us..who says.

I will follow Him all the days of my life..where I will be tomorrow I have no idea..but currently my location is Texas..and I am loving being in His presence.

So I'm thankful for this new chapter in my life..25..it seems exhilarating!:) 

Bring it on Lord!

I'm ready.

Better Together

I so deeply desire for unity in the body of Christ. The emotions that come with that expression came gently washing over me a few minutes ago as I was slightly reconnected with an old friend via social media. She is overseas doing Kingdom work and it was so beautiful for me to see the Lord's hand print in her life. In that same moment though it took me back to a moment when a big part of my universe was flipped upside down and I was deeply hurt by several individuals that I cared for. I am so thankful that I can finally say that my heart has come full circle and the Lord has healed me of that very nasty emotional wound. However, I was moved by the compassion of the Spirit in that moment as I longed for all of us, as brothers and sisters, to look on each other with the same kind of passionate love that Jesus gazes at us with moment to moment. He longs for us to love each other deeply and to stop fighting over each others birthrights (Jacob & Esau)! Don't you know that the very same God who wrote my days in His book and exquisitely designed a perfect and flawless will for my life (that yes we have a choice to submit to) designed the same for you! We don't have to strive after what doesn't belong to us! Don't you know that by operating with a counterfeit intention you end up with an illegitimate part of His plan that actually believe it or not will NEVER satisfy you! (& ultimately He should be what fully satisfies anyways..His promises are just His incredible expression of love to us as His children). His plans are for you just like they are for me. I don't need your God given destiny, in fact I don't want it. I want and desire what His heart is for me! But don't you know that if my God, who is GOOD, has incredible things in store for me..then guess what..the same goes for you! My Father doesn't run out of good things! There is NO lack in His Kingdom!! 

Brothers and sisters may we please operate in grace and love and passion for His throne! We have no time for bickering, and envy, and insecurity. The Kingdom is here and the Kingdom is now and there is work to be done!! We can get so much more done together than apart! Our battle is NOT against flesh and blood (Eph 6)! I know that is hard to comprehend but I can promise you that once you receive Holy Spirit revelation on it you will no longer desire to gossip and come against the people the Lord has intentionally placed in your life to walk in community with you..but rather you will learn how to war against the spirits and principalities operating against them as individuals and against the Kingdom as a whole.  His love is sweet, His love is pure and it covers us. Stop keeping this treasure to yourself. There are plenty of individuals that have heard His name but have never ever seen His love. Let's change that. Let change it together. 

"Two are better than one, because that have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up His fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him- a threefold cord is not quickly broken." Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

And to those of you that are going through a rough patch..Just remember there are more for you than are against you! Let me know ways I can pray for you:)

"One for Oby"

My life has been crazy the past few weeks.
I sit here exhausted, worn down, and super tender towards the Lord. His heart for us is so beautiful ya know? The way He loves us, the way He desires to take us deeper, and the way that if everything that was dear to us was taken away tomorrow His Love, His presence.. it would truly be enough (but that is another blog for another time).. tonight I am taken back by one sweet little boy my friends and I met in Haiti in June.. His name is Oby..

We had traveled to a village outside of Port Au Prince to go check out a ministry site and see if we could learn a thing or two.. fair enough right?

So as my team quickly found out after we got into Haiti I am a wanderer! Tours are fun, and in moments very intriguing..but not nearly as intriguing as the children that we are passing as our very kind guide is giving us the down low about the village that we are now immersed in..so I have a tendency to disappear a bit.. and this day was really no different..

At one point we came to the side of the river where our guide was met by a very naked Haitian 5 year old who we would soon learn was a sweet little soul named "Oby".  All of us who were slightly distracted before during our tour were completely keyed in for the next several minutes. Our guide began to describe this precious child as animalistic and mute, the list went on. He didn't mean it negatively he just assumed he was giving us the facts, but all our spirit's saw was opportunity!

As he continued to fill us in on how this child was viewed in the community Oby became very drawn to David and quickly went to him, our guide began to say "notice who he went too, he typically will only go to Haitians" translation: David is dark skinned therefore he looks a little bit more Haitian than the rest of us therefore Oby felt comfortable falling into his arms..but not before he could finish his sentence Oby was now falling in my arms.. and I'm not sure if you have ever seen me before but I am WHITE! The guide was quite stunned, already the Lord was shifting His vision, shifting things in the atmosphere..and the Kingdom of Heaven was quickly invading earth! 

So the hour went on and Oby never left our side, and we had no desire for him too. If he wasn't holding hands with one of us, he was holding hands with another one of us..but typically he liked to be in between two individuals loving on him at the same time.

At one point he found himself between Christina and I our team was pretty far ahead of us and Christina could hardly take it:

C: We have to pray over him, like seriously, like now!
B: Let's do it!
C: What about our team?
B: I'm honestly not sure what came out of my mouth at this point but let's just say I wasn't all that concerned;)

So we stopped right there and we began to ask God to do what He loves to do and perform a miracle in this little boy's life! Oby never spoke.. he was "mute" remember, and at this point pretty much the whole village had out caste him due to his mental illness claiming he was demonized and had animalistic  characteristics..which to be honest I was sick of hearing about. He is a CHILD created by the Maker of the Universe..so that was enough for the both of us to have some fun speaking some life over him. So we began to ask the Lord to move in his body and mind and we just began declaring freedom and life.  After we prayed we continued walking with him and continued praying calling forth his voice! Giving this little one permission to speak! Permission to open his mouth.. and what do ya know he began making sounds. You should have seen the look of mystery in our eyes! We knew God was just getting started and for that we were getting excited!

We finally made it back to where our team had landed and we were still praying and I sensed in my spirit that he needed male figures to come into agreement with us over his life so we pulled in David and Patrick and again we prayed! This time David led the way and Patrick began prophesying..this was getting really really fun! As David was praying I kid you not his body went limp and fell straight into Christina's arms. Call it what you want but he was just baptized in the Holy Spirit right in the midst of us! What an honor! What a joy! That little boys eyes began to get clearer and he began to look around as though he was seeing the world in a brand new way and he was just SO peaceful. We sat there for probably a good 40 or so minutes continuing to pray and love on him until David came over and scooped this naked baby in his arms to go find him some clothes so that he could go to his feeding program.

We were overwhelmed with the goodness of the Lord and hurried to get into the feeding program ourselves to hang out with some more precious kiddos. What seemed like an eternity later David finally arrives walking in with his head held high like a proud dad! "Wait til you see how Oby looks!" he kept telling us! We were READY!

Oby finally made it in fully clothed and took a seat at one of the tables. Patrick was sitting across from him with a big grin on his face just watching him; soon after I couldn't take it anymore and had to go join them. Before I got over there though the girls working there came and sat Oby's food in front of him addressed Patrick and said, "you are probably going to have to help feed him, he doesn't normally do to well" Patrick just chuckled (silently i'm sure) and just began to watch him. Too make a long story short Oby ate all his food with no problem and fed HIMSELF! We began to tell some of the volunteers, as they continued to discuss with us his animalistic characteristics, that they should begin to expect this from Oby that this would become his new normal and to do their best to speak life over him! Tell me the Lord isn't a MIRACLE MAKER! Even if you tried to tell me He wasn't I wouldn't believe you, because I have seen it with my own eyes, experienced it with my own heart! His heart for His children is so pure and so full of love! Tell me being in the army of the Lord isn't awesome! He is so good!

and to think.. this was only the start of our time in Haiti..

#ImME

Marked By a Call

Have you ever seen such love.. as in these eyes.
Have you ever seen such need..as in these eyes.
Have you ever seen such beauty..as in these eyes.

These are the eyes of Hope..
These are the eyes of Dreams..
These are the eyes of Identity..

It's a Love Haiti.. Love Jesus.. Pursue Identity..Chasing Holiness kind of Relationship..
It's a relentless pursuit of men, women, and children who need the Father to take them under His wings to Grow them, and Love them, and Nourish them..

It is our job..
It is our calling..
Stamp our lives with your love Lord..
May we pass on Hope to these eyes..
May they live and not die..
May they see their selves the way you see them..filled with adoration..filled with honor..filled with passion..filled with unending love..

We are Chosen.. We are Called.. We ACCEPT..

send us.. #imME
www.imme.org

Hope For Haiti

Hi, my name is Brittni Rawdon..
I'm 24 years old and I have 21 children..
and if you don't believe me ask David, Patrick, Daniel, or Jozey...and they'll all tell you the same thing.. that we are all in our twenties..and have no idea what we are doing other than passionately following Jesus..and that yes..we are all about to be legally responsible for 21 precious children.

How so you ask? 
We have no idea! (i'm kidding of course) 

All I know, is that we got on that plane excited to go love on some babies..and came back with 21 of our own. Jesus is the Miracle Maker!

How do we, as believers, even put into words what it is like to live in a constant state of adventure with the Lord? 

God adventures are always...

Exuberant
Thrilling
Breathtaking 
Glorious
Beautiful
..and so so STUNNING

On June 10th I was invited to go to Haiti..
On June 13th I left for vacation in Mexico..
On June 18th I landed back in Dallas..
On June 19th was boarding a flight to FL to catch a connecting flight the next morning to none other than Haiti. 
On June 24th I met 21 kids that will now have a forever place in my heart. 

Over a span of 14 days I got a sneak peak, yet again, at the faithfulness of my Savior. 

Who knew that the Lord was about to radically shift, change, and transform my life in a way that I was not expecting! Who knew?! He knew! He knew all along that one day Haiti had a place for me and that a huge part of me had a place for Haiti. 

To be honest the whole time I felt like I was in a dream, it didn't even feel real. To bring heaven to earth, to live in the ultimate reality of the kingdom, to enjoy every moment as it is happening..that's life to the fullest. Things are so simple with Jesus. He is love, He expresses love, He freely gives love, and love is all we have to pour out over the heads of these children!:) 

Meet our 21 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ztEafKqrzc

Keep an eye out for more posts.. the best is yet to come! :)

www.imme.org 

Back to the Basics

Romans 12:12

Be Joyful in HOPE, Patient in AFFLICTION, Faithful in PRAYER.

Joyful, Patient, Faithful..

Hope, Affliction, Prayer

Hmm interesting..

the growing theme of the past several years of my life has been Passionate Patience...

How does one attain such mercy and favor from the Lord but too stand in His presence and wait for Him..and wait on His instruction..and TRULY believe every syllable that utters from His mouth..every single utterance the Father makes has no flaw..Holiness is all that resonates..He is good.

He is good and full of abundance.

His truth is true and we don't ever have to question His motive or heart behind speaking life into our souls. He is ONLY for us and never against us..

He showed me recently how He,as Father, would never be against His children.

We are His kids.

He loves me. He loves you..... and He desires for all of us to love each other.

That's all.

Amen. (So be it)