Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Fruit of the Spirit!

Good Tuesday morning to all my crafty friends!  I so wanted to post yesterday, but as I went out of town Friday, I had a lot to catch up on yesterday!  I had a glorious weekend in Tryon, North Carolina where I spent time in God's presence with some beautiful women of God!  Today, I want to share a little snippet of that with you.  I say "snippet," because it was such a powerful time in His presence that it would take more space than I have here to express it!

I went up to Tryon for a Wellness/Ministry Conference and it was well needed for my physical body and spiritual body!  While there, we visited an apple orchard and were able to pick our own apples. As I had never done that, it was a beautiful experience as well as a profound one that brought the whole weekend to a glorious completeness! 

Today, I will share a journal spread I had done a few months back, but never shared because I just didn't feel it was the right time, plus secretly, I wasn't sure how I felt about it visually.  But now I know it was all just a part of God's timing for "this moment!"  The Holy Spirit is so awesome how He works in us!
I will try to remember all I did with this page, but I am most certain that I started with applying gesso to my pages and then I used my yummy Silks acrylic glazes in Sky Blue and Pretty Peridot for the backdrop.  I applied with a brush and used a little water to thin it out just a bit.  I then went back in with gesso and move it around with a baby wipe to make a "cloud feel." I have an awesome background stamp from Lost Coast Designs that I used in the background hoping it would look like background trees, but who knows what it looks like now? LOL! Afterwards I defined the edges with Distress Ink in Broken China and Peeled Paint.

I have a great tree stencil from Crafter's Workshop that I used and just kind of repositioned to how I wanted to see it with Silks Nutmeg.  Just quickly used my Faber Castell gelatos and Big Brush Pens to mimic foliage and then I had some digital apples I cut out and a sentiment that I found in a magazine that I adhered with some Liquitex Matte Medium.  I used my favorite Tim Holtz Worn Text Stamp Set with StazOn for the sentiments and outlined with my white gel pen.

My thoughts on this page were most definitely regarding the character of Christ!  As we have received Christ, we are to walk in His character and ways.  The fruit of those ways, according to God's Word in Galatians 5 are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Those who belong to Christ are to "put off" fleshly ways and walk and live according to the Spirit.

The conference this weekend covered just those things, hence the trip to the apple orchard!  What fruit are you bearing? The fruit you could be bearing are a conscious expression or result of your subconscious root system.  Conscious fruit would be things like sadness, fear, anger, disappointment, negative behavior which would all be an expression or a result of the subconscious roots of negative values, negative attitudes and negative beliefs.  Your fruit can't look like spiritual fruit as long as your root system is not grounded in Christ!  If the fruit you manifest is contaminated you need to go to the root source!  It is there that you can begin to identify what is springing forth the fruit, take it before the Father and let Him begin to heal you from the inside out!

At the beginning of Galatians 5 God tells us "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." (v. 1)  Christ set us free on the cross.  It is done!  If we are being held a slave to negative fruit, we are not free! Through Jesus' amazing grace, ALL things are possible!  We can put off that old man and become the new man that Jesus died for and live in freedom and walk in His character and ways!

What does your fruit look like?  I pray a blessing of grace over you today that you would seek the Father and His Spiritual Fruit that you would walk in amazing and glorious freedom!

Blessings

10 comments:

  1. Felicia, it is a fabulous spread and your blog post is so full of energy, so powerful , I am sure that you had a great weekend, and those apples look great!

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    1. Thanks sweet Ruth! I did have a wonderful weekend! It was an absolutely beautiful weekend. I could not have asked for better weather or fellowship! You know how it is when ladies get together! I made new friends, which I love to do and I look forward to a followup! The apples were FABULOUS! I picked a whole bag and can't wait to do all kinds of fabulous recipes with them! Thanks again my friend! Blessings! :)

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  2. It's lovely to see a photo of you Felicia! You look so happy and fulfilled! It sounds like you had a wonderful spiritual weekend and it shows! I love your page - how funny that you created that months ago and there you are picking apples! I have those stamps too - I like how you used the white pen to highlight the letters. I may have to pinch that idea!

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    1. Thanks Zsuzsa! The photo was certainly RARE!! I don't like showing photos of me, just not my thing! LOL But I had such a glorious time, that I wanted to show that fun shot picking the apples! LOL Yea, I love how God just pull things all together! Hey, I stole the idea about the highlighting from Vicky Papaioannou, so I'm sure she's ok with the "pinch!" LOL That stamp set is great though, I probably use it more than anything! Zsuzsa thanks for the encouragement and sweetness today my friend! Be blessed! :)

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  3. I'm so glad to be putting a face to Felicia!!! Your page is wonderful and the thoughts very insightful!!! I've actually shared a link to both of my boys and I'm hoping they will read it!!

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    1. Thank you sweet Wanda!!! Like I told Zsuzsa, it's rare, but I had such a wonderful time!!! Wow, I am honored to be shared with your family! I hope they enjoy the read, but most of all I pray the Holy Spirit ministers to them in the midst! I am thankful to be used by the Lord for His purpose and I know that, when it's a God thing, seeds will be sown! Blessings over them and YOU! :)

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  4. What an amazing project Felicia!! You are such a gifted artist. I love your work!! It is such an inspiration to me!!!! I have to say, those apples look absolutely delicious!!! I would be eating more than I picked. Thank you for sharing your craft with me.

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    1. Penny, you are just the sweetest! My heart is overwhelmed today! Thank you so much for that lovely comment! I tell you I could have eaten and eaten! Those apples were amazing. I had never picked my own before, and it was so much fun! I took a big bag home, but we have all but devoured them!! LOL You are so very welcome, I love sharing! I EQUALLY enjoy your creative gift as well! Your cards are ALWAYS so wonderful!! Thanks again and many blessings to you! :)

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  5. You look so happy picking the apples! And after the weekend you'd had I'm not surprised - how inspiring. LOVE your page on the fruits of the Spirit. How wonderful is the Father's perfect timing.

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    1. Thank you Sweet Susan! A rare photo to be sure (I don't like taking pictures!) I did have an AWESOME time before the Lord that weekend! I think you would have really loved it after the service I saw you guys had at your church! It would have been right up your alley! Such wonderful flow of the Spirit and time before the Lord! Thank you my friend, I enjoyed doing this spread for such a time as this! :) Blessings to you!

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