"The Lord searches [The eyes of the Lord search] ·all [throughout] the earth for people ·who have given themselves completely to him [whose hearts are completely his/committed to him]. He wants to strengthen them." 2C169
Dear brides, today I feel encouraged to share that since I stopped being a bystander and became a cheerleader - a Minister - a bridge for other women to walk through my testimonies and be ministered to and encouraged to do good, I that it is His will, I have been blessed with so much more from Him.
Many women write to us and apply to be ministers, that's wonderful, I was there and believe me, I pushed very very very hard and knocked on that door over and over again for the opportunity to open up for me, I think we have a genuine and compassionate desire to give and return what we have received, we want other women to be blessed as much and more than what we have been blessed and that is that every time we share our praises we are blessed with much more because that is the type of woman that our Husband longs for, a woman who admires Him, respects Him and always speaks well of Him, that type of woman that He would like to bless much more so that she shares more about Him and His goodness (2C169 https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/2%20Chronicles%2016:9).
So what does it mean to be a minister? Going through the books of the Bible, I can see that the ministry of each one of the disciples was carried out in a different way, but always walking within the will of the Lord, doing what He had instructed them, and walking according to the gifts that He delivered them, following the call for which He created them, some He sent to preach to the Gentiles, others to the Jews... I think as women we must be aware that we were created women to be THE ADEQUATE HELP of our husbands -spiritual leaders- even if they have not taken that place, we can prepare ourselves for when they do (in faith), so He is preparing us as Wise Women and therefore our first ministry as Erin mentioned in one of her books it is our home, and then if we can be effective in ministering to others.
How blessed we are to have this door open to share our praises and everything He is doing in our ministries, and our homes, following His teachings in everything, keeping our home clean and tidy, creating our routine based on what our husband and family need, in providing them with delicious and nutritious meals, in being an attentive ear, a soft and gentle spirit, and since that is going to form the character of our children and husbands even if we do not see it initially, the seeds that we are watering will one day give fruit... we are a great influence in our homes and that is where our ministry begins, this is the beginning of your ministry to share the good news from your home with other women (using this website for example to share) who are just beginning this journey and who need to be encouraged to obey His teachings to be blessed.
Dear Bride and Minister at home, this ministry has taught you to go to HIM, the source of all knowledge and wisdom without intermediaries, because He wants you to be successful in everything, He wants you to be close friends and trust Him for everything. In each area let Him teach you and guide you, just walk in faith, sometimes there is no other person who has the same situation, perhaps we do not have the same testimony or situation and that is also great because we can be pioneers! You can be the first to build that bridge and guide others, that is what our Beloved Husband is looking for, ears attentive to His voice that follow Him and share the good news, they teach other women as He guides them in their own walk.
Personally, I have been very blessed as I share more and more of all the wonderful things He does for me, I always love to go and reread past praise reports because they remind me of the battles He won for me and how His love for me has been. I manifest there, this is how He has used my life to minister. Since I stopped being a spectator and started being an encourager woman https://hopeatlast.com/movec1/spectator/, my Beloved has given me many more experiences of how wonderful it is to have an intimate relationship with Him to share and shout them out to the world just because I Love Him and I want Him to be honored and known for His love and kindness. And that is my blessing that the more I share the more He gives me (in love), and the more I get to know Him and be bathed in His sweet love. Isn't that what we're looking for, our First Love?
I encourage you to share your praises, big or small, and do not keep anything, you will see He does a lot with little, the important thing is to start sowing!!
Thank you for sharing Anastasia. It is so true, going from a spectator to an encouraging women is such a blessing. Sometimes when we start our journey and we are in pain, we think we can never encourage someone else, but what I found was that this was the most important time to look outside myself and encourage others instead of just looking at my own situation. And then of course encouraging others by praising our Heavenly Husband because He inhabits our praises. 💞
This is so true Anastasia! Sometimes we could think how can be hard to begin being an encouraging woman, as we feel not only weak, but sometimes we saw ourselves like unable to do things… Every time I ponder over it I think of Ester and Mary that were living their daily basis lives, but were called to do something to help others 🧡
We could think that what they did was wondrous things and that we cannot compare with our lives, in deed we can’t… but living in this world so sad and chaotic, helping women, families to not set apart is a marvelous miracle🙌 It means doing what is unexpected and because of this it’s awesome!!!
Thank you Anastasia to remind us all about this!
Hello sweet Anastasia. I’ve missed you. I’m really looking forward to getting back to some of our RADD work, and I am excited about the upcoming contest for the anniversary logo.
Your praise was actually one of the first I read this morning, but since then, my husband and I have been off commenting and answering questions. Then to my surprise, He had us come back to leave you a little bit of encouragement and point you to a little narrow path that we hope all of our MTMs will begin to follow (and many who have).
The honeymoon that we gave to each of our MTMs was designed for many many reasons – – several never imagined until a week or two into our honeymoon. One of the most important as far as I can see, is, that our MTMs began using their phones, and simply posting praise and commenting much more INFORMALLY and becoming much more personable. Much more real. More relatable.
When we write on our computers, rather than our phones, we naturally right much more and are more formal like your praise today. It was beautifully written, but it’s more of a lesson then it is a praise. Reading it I didn’t learn more about you and how this applies to you personally and that’s exactly what I want to know more about—you, Anastasia.
Way back when I was a little girl, which was a long long long long time ago ha ha ha 😂 we had two types of guests who came to visit. Maybe it was the same way in your home. Some guest came into our living room and sat on our couches, and the conversation was pleasant, but very formal. The other guests didn’t come in the front door, but came around the back and came into our kitchen. Many felt comfortable enough to grab something to drink or even a snack and then they would join us in our very informal comfortable den. It was the same way with many of the families on our block. I never came in the front door, but always came into the kitchen and instead of getting anything out of the refrigerator or pantry, I would usually start washing the dishes, or folding diapers, or tidying up. We were family and that’s what we are here or what I hope we will be. One family. One body. One Source.
So close your computer 👩🏻💻, kick off your shoes, put on something comfortable, and simply share your heart 💗 from your phone. 🤗🤗🤗🤗
Thank you, Erin, in this opportunity I felt led to write to encourage ladies to post as I shared with you on WhatsApp because it is the way to start as a minister in response to the application from Ana to join us with the Ministry Translation Team, the application that you shared yesterday.
I would like to share our conversation to remind it:
[4:59 a. m., 1/2/2023] Yvonne: Thank you Erin, it would be wonderful if we could start leading these women to just start encouraging others first. Especially in the languages that already has so much translated. Will SSG on this and let Anastasia do the same. ❤️
[6:20 a. m., 1/2/2023] Erin Thiele: Ohhh that sounds wonderful. 💗
[6:25 p. m., 1/2/2023] Anastasia Johnson: I completely agree with Yvonne, we do not need a translator now but, we will be so blessed with her sharing her praises in the ESP encourager, while she is ministering in her home, I mean, our home is our first ministry, It would be amazing if the Brides could be focused in share their praises to feed our sheep with the knowledge that our home and relationship with Him is first and most important ministry, I wrote this https://encouragingwomen.org/you-are-a-minister-at-home/
I hope this brings light 😊
Thank you Anastasia dear for sharing ! Me too, at the beggining of my journey and, I confess, in many times during the Journey, had this feeling that I wouldn’t be able to encourage other women, since I was in such a pain.
But our HH is so Wonderful 💕💕 with patience and love He showed me that, when I give encouragement to others, specially when some hard and painful situation happened to me, I am immediately fullfiled with His joy, peace and happiness, and my heart’s condition changes.
Only my Beloved, through RMI, could do this to me: from a self-pity and heart broken woman to an encouraging woman and a bridge builder🥰
Dear Anastasia, thank you for reminding & encouraging us about ministering at home. Our despair when we are starting our journey make us blind of how to encourage others. We feel so broken that we can not see a way to help others as we only want to receive the help ourselves and be healed. With time our Husband start showing us that our own trials in life are what He needs to use to help others. He just reminded me of a promise He gave me when I asked for wisdom because I was afraid of talking to others (J17): But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.
Oh dear Anastasia, thank you for sharing. At the beginning of my journey I was very afraid of not being able to be an encouraging woman, I told the Lord that I wanted to be used by Him, but I didn’t know how. I guess I thought it was up to me to be a bridge builder 😊, but as soon as I stopped looking at what I could and didn’t know how to do, and let Him empower me to do what He wanted done, I began to see Him showing me what to do. what I should do. And today I can see how much He has helped me to take His Word of hope to other hearts.