The puzzle has started coming together

Today I experienced God in a way that was so much more impactful than any way I have ever experienced him before, and let me tell you He is just awesome! I am so stoked for what he is doing in my life and he is starting to grant me my hearts deepest desires.

Psalm 37 says that we need to trust in the Lord and do good. God has been challenging me big time in areas of my life where I don't trust him completely. One area is in relationships and with dating. Every Christian mans longing is to meet their spouse and form a bond through Godly relationship. We feel that if we're not dating that God will somehow forget about us and we will somehow get left to walk the single life for the rest of our days and so we help God along in this area. We flirt with girls/spend time with them/and date them even if that is not what God has designed us to do. Why do we date at all? God certainly didn't ordain the dating game. God has been speaking to me this last week about giving this area of my life over to him and to trust completely that he has something greater in store.

A second area God has been challenging me on trusting has been through my finances. I thought that giving up my job was enough to show that I was trusting God in this area but I was wrong.

In 1 Kings 18 we read the story about Elijah and the prophets of Baal. In the story they both build a sacrifice and pray to their Gods to consume the sacrifice with fire. The prophets of Baal all gather around and pray to their God and dance around and cut themselves but their God does not answer them. Elijah before calling on God orders that the sacrifice be soaked in water which if you ask me, is pretty counter productive when you want to make fire! Then he calls on the Lord and fire comes down from heaven consuming the sacrifice and drying up the water surrounding. God spoke to me this week through this story. I feel that leaving my job and having no real steady income was just preparing the sacrifice, when Gods words to me were... "Paul, I want you to soak the sacrifice"

He wants to stretch me further in the area of finances and become more dependent on Him. He wants me to get to a place where I'm not just surviving comfortably but rather a place where I am on my knees and trusting that he will provide for me for just that day.

Anyway the psalm of David has taken on a whole new light for me because as I continue to be challenged to trust more and to give things over to the Lord, my hearts desires are starting to be fulfilled. Its so exciting!!

One year ago, God placed it on my heart to fund raise for children in Cambodia and even though at the time I didn't spend any time prayerfully considering this, I did it anyway. Don't ask me why it was Cambodia, but it was. Since then my brother has been in Cambodia and other news stories from there have sort of grabbed my attention. I don't know why God has been putting Cambodia on my heart but he just has. Today God has granted some of my hearts desires.

He is sending me to Cambodia to do outreach in that nation. I received the news this afternoon in a letter and I just wanted to cry because for me it was such a revelation from God. He confirmed through this news that his hand is very much over my life and that if I just trust him and allow him to reveal himself, he has more exciting things to show me and more blessings to pour out. I'm so excited that I will be in Cambodia in two and a half months time. Man, God is just incredible.