2021 Update

Simply Sells Kitchen is a beautiful outlet for our creative passions. We started Simply Sells Kitchen to bring beauty to the world through food, family, and God-inspired encouragement. We have a lot of ideas coming forth this year. We are actively adding content as we can, and at the pace our lives allow. God is so good to us and has kept us full of happiness and vision for the things to come. 

Our family is thriving and really enjoying time together. We had the most wonderful Christmas this last year. It was so great to have connection when life seemed so disconnected throughout 2020. The world could not have seen coming the impact that the pandemic would cause. Even a normal family like ours had some major hurdles to conquer. The world we live in is no longer the same – I can say that with a straight face. We are now forced to grow up and decide what life we are going to live, what voice we are going to listen to, and what we are going to align ourselves with. We are seeing such division, manipulation, and heartache in the world today, and that is no joke.

I recently spoke a word of encouragement and a biblical teaching at a worship team gathering in our home. I am by no means a preacher, but God has placed inside my heart to speak what He tells me. However that plays out I will be obedient. We were gathering at the meeting to establish a foundation and vision-cast with the team, with whom we lead worship. I had been feeling strongly that the extreme divisions happening with life views and politics made it even more important to know what you stand on and believe. 

My message was “Who are you going to listen to?”. I spoke about how we are spirit, mind/soul, and body. As a Christian we adopt the Spirit of God within us. We get to house the mighty life and resurrection power of God that comes with the decision to believe the miracle of Jesus Christ. We have a mind to decide what to listen to and a body that is dedicated to the service and testimony of God. We are committed to the constant dedication of laying down the wants of our body/flesh and deciding with our mind to listen to the Spirit of God. This simple picture is a roadmap to knowing how to listen to the Holy Spirit. What is God saying in this hour? How do we move forward? We listen to the Holy Spirit! This is what we do! He will lead us!

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I spoke about this because when we live a life of worship, or lead worship in our case, our biggest desire is to listen to the person of the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of God within us – and ask Him how God would like to be worshipped. The Holy Spirit knows all the mysteries of heaven and wants to show us and guide us. I plainly stated, to be a good worship leader you need to be a follower. This is a mandate for those under our leadership. We will always follow the Holy Spirit to the best of our ability. We have known and experienced many different churches with their own way of doing things. We know that God has so much in store and that is what we want. 

I shared with the team about a book that I am reading called The Reset by Jeremy Riddle. I am about 3/4 the way through the book at this point and I have really been encouraged. He speaks about the life that he has experienced in worship by just surrendering to the Holy Spirit. Jeremy states that he had led many worship sets that were perfectly planned out but lacked any evidence of the Holy Spirit. One night he said that he just wanted the set to be over and in that moment he gave a prayer asking the Holy Spirit to take over. As he surrendered, the atmosphere began to sparkle as the manifestation of the Holy Spirit moved across the room forever changing him. From that moment he gave his worship over to the Holy Spirit his experience with the Lord was radically different. He experienced an encounter with the Lord that has moved and changed the lives of many through the leadership that Jeremy brings. The main message I received from the book and shared with our team was what I stated before: to be a good leader, you have to be a follower. 

Jesus teaches us to take communion, using wine or juice symbolizing His blood and bread symbolizing His body. To the human mind it may seem like a strange thing to symbolically drink the blood of Jesus and eat His body, but this represents a strong message to “believe” what He did for you on the cross. The foundation of the life we are to lead is one of being set free and full of resurrection power. We are to believe that He died on the cross and His body was broken for you to have healing from every sickness that could come against your body. Take the bread! Believe that His blood was spilled for you, to have His blood wash you of all the sin that separates you from God. Drink the blood! Believing is what expresses your faith and unlocks all God has for you. From this foundation we get to experience all that God has, and with the gifts of the Holy Spirit we walk in power and authority through the abiding presence of God within us. The Holy Spirit is alive and moving! The church is getting out of its sick bed, as stated by my pastor, and recognizing what God has done for us! We will walk in resurrection power, faith, and the authority that Jesus Christ gave us!