Do you ever get questions that bring up your past?

Do you ever get questions that bring up your past?

I believe that this new season in Seoul has been like that when meeting others.  I’m reminded for a second where I came from and what God has done to get me in the place I am today.

I’ve been meeting with this amazing Korean woman and her mother in law once a week and it’s been so great! The questions they ask make my face light up because they are questions that I enjoy talking about and answering.  How do you get closer to God? How do you spend your every moment with Him? How do you hear from Him? These questions make me filled with so much JOY.  Even though one is super busy taking care of her family and working and the mother in law which she is 80 by the way, still wants to know how to walk in a life where God is apart of it daily and every moment.

When I hear these question I am reminded once again why God brought me to Korea.  I know that its taken me such a long time to know what intimacy even looks like with God, but I have experienced Him so much the last few years and the more He shows me the more I want to share with others! I want people in Korea to experience the intimacy with the Father! That is one of the reasons why God has brought me here!

I was reminded today that there are so many that don’t even know that they hear from God and when these two women asked how do know if its God speaking.  God brought me back to the first time when I knew I heard from Him! So here is my story where God once again shows’ me that I hear Him!

It was my first mission’s trip to Africa.  I was excited and nervous at the same time. It was the first week when we went out to empty fields and worshipped and brought the good news to the Tanzanian people! It was the first ten days of my life to see God open blind eyes and deaf ears and see deliverance. I knew and believed that God did this, but never experienced this! So I remember the Tanzanian people standing in lines to get prayer for God to heal them. I remember standing there saying “God I don’t even know if I hear you” as this women came up to me that was hunched over and her legs were hurting her. I felt that impression on my heart to pray for her back. I said to God I don’t even know if this is you but what’s the worst that could happen….I laid my hands on this women’s back and started praying.  All of a sudden this women falls over in the spirit and God heals her. I stood there in such awe because one God healed the women and second I could hear Him!

These women not only needed to be encouraged by my testimony of hearing from God, but they needed to know that there is such faith and love when we walk with Him and are willing to hear Him.

Philemon 1:4-5

I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints.

If you’re struggling with hearing from Him, take a moment and sit with Him and ask…. Ask Him to show you and take that chance and step out because it could change someone’s life forever and yours!

The Lover Thats Captured My Heart!!!!!

Isaiah 54:5
For your Maker is your husband-the Lord Almighty is his name-the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.

I was listening to this sermon the other day and something that came to mind over and over by the holy Spirit was why is it so easy to say I do or yes when someone proposes but when God wants us to say yes we hesitate? I was on this of course jerky bus ride home thinking about this and which one would I do. Walk down the isle to my husband or walk down the isle to Jesus? I might have compromised my relationship a while ago in this area but since then I’ve gotten a taste of Jesus and His love. Nothing fulfills or compares to those sweet moments where God will listen to that every concern or that every thought you have. Now I’m not saying marriage is meaningless because God talks about marriage and the value of marriage. But I do think our hearts should be stirred for His heart because He is and has fulfilled all the voids that have not been filled by earthly or humanly choices or things. Imagine you being someone’s second choice and imagine how God feels most of the time because we choose other things over Him!

For so many years I longed to have someone look at me and say you are beautiful and amazing! I was the one who would pursue and seek after the things that did not make any sense in my life and had no fulfillment in my heart. I thought that filling that void in my heart would make things better. If I could only have that something or someone to fill that void in my heart is what would come across my mind several times in a day. The thought of being alone scared me, but every time I had that something I still felt empty as before. I kept thinking well maybe it’s just not the right thing. I’ll just have to keep looking and pursuing. What I did not realize until later in life is that one person that I was waiting for was Jesus. God has been unraveling marriage to me little by little because I have been so heart broken of being single, but I finally understand what God has been doing and showing me.

Hosea 2:16

“In that day,” declares the Lord “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.’

It’s been four years since I hiked with a piece of wood and declared to release my desires to have a family or be married. That was one of the hardest days of my life along with many things throughout. It’s been four years of constant healing and God continues to pull and take and smooth my heart into this place where I honestly thought it would never be. I have had to do some hard things these last few years that I did not want to do, but I knew that I needed to keep being apart of this stream of healing and keep moving forward. Honestly years ago I struggled with my identity in Him and who I really was and wanted to be. I grew up thinking I was this person that I was not. I just wanted to be loved and longed for. Though I could find that in people and things, but every time I would find a new something or someone my heart was not being fulfilled. I knew that there had to be more and I had to find it.

God put this flame in me that just won’t burn out. The FLAME IS HIM! I know that I never thought I would say this a few years ago, but I have finally found LOVE! I have been completely pursued like no other! I came to Korea a few months ago and knew that before coming here God wanted to take me on this romance journey with Him. I have been trying to figure out so much being here and one thing I know for certain is that God is just romancing me and has captured my heart to the fullest. I am finally in a place in my life that I know that NOTHING OR NO ONE can fulfill the love in my heart but HIM. I know that one day I will be married, but my heart will always long for Him no matter what. How do you explain that the person I’m in love with I cannot physically see but I can feel? Coming to Korea I have watched my lover provide for me and protect me in so many ways!

Here are a few questions for you to think about

Are you putting expectations on your spouse that honestly they cannot meet?

Are you giving your whole heart to God? If not why?

Are You Asking and Listening to Him?!

The last couple of weeks I have been in a different season with worship time with God.  Sometimes we go through different seasons of worship with Him.  What I mean by this is sometimes He has us in a place where He wants us to dance around and screaming off of balconies or in a car, paint or just sit with Him.  It’s all about where He has you in that moment or season.  SO if HE has you wanting to do something out of your box just trust Him because there is so much victory in being who you are in HIM.  God has put me in some of these seasons of worship with Him and there has been so much healing and freedom.  

This season is a really great season of laying here in complete silence with Him.  Sometimes God gives me pictures of what He is doing or in the people around me, but the last couple of weeks they have been sentences that just pop up in my mind and He answers.  These responses from Him are so amazing to me! They are not just little glimpses but HUGE revelations to the heart.  Sometime I just sit there and weep and sometimes I just laugh because of the JOY that overflows me when I hear Him telling me His heart because He trusts me.  

Just the other day I was sitting here with Him and I said to God “do people really hear me Lord when I speak”? Right after that God said “Do they really hear me when I speak”? I sat there and I could not get that out of my mind.  My heart has been tender ever since I heard that, but how tender is His heart?   

I had a situation that just recently happened to me in Korea.   Where I though I could move and change a situation on my own without even sitting with God and saying is this okay? Well when I did not hear a response from this organization I was so bummed and discouraged.  Of course I went running and crying to God about what was going on and God came in and showed me what happened.   I was completely blindsided when God opened up this door and I overlooked it with something else.  I continue to learn in this country of hearing His voice and listening and waiting!  Sometimes we think our ways are so much better than His, but they aren’t. 

I encourage you to please ask, wait and listen!  He just wants you to hear His heart.  I would love to hear what God spoke to you! Email me or comment back!

 

Deuteronomy 8:3-5 

Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors.  Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.  Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.  Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.

 

Prayer Requests

-There a restaurant below where I live and I have been going down there to minister so please pray for God to do some BIG things in these women’s lives down there

-Resting/Sleep

-The family I’m living with

-To be still in Him 

-More direction from God about Korea

-S/N Korea to be unified

-strive, status to be broken off of this country

-MORE hearts to be circumcised for Gods heart/More intimacy with the Father

The UNDERSTANDING of why I am in Korea!

Being in Seoul, Korea has been a time of trusting and learning as I am here. Before getting here I could not understand why the Lord was calling me into a country and not have anything planned out. The only thing I knew before coming here was it would be a magical journey with Him. I am reminded of Proverbs 2:1-8

My son, if you accept my words
and store up my commands within you,
turning your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to understanding—
indeed, if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding,
and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,
then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
He holds success in store for the upright,
he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
for he guards the course of the just
and protects the way of his faithful ones.

“UNDERSTANDING” is the word that keeps coming up over and over the last week. God has completely unraveled the word understanding in this country to me and it blows me away. Before coming to Korea I would constantly hear “why Korea”? Inside every time I heard that question my heart would beat faster and I would think well why not. You go where Gods calls you too right? So why would Korea be any different than any other place right? I knew that Korea was a first world country, but I also know that when God calls you somewhere you just go……

The first few days being here I would walk, pray and observe. Observing was something I learned on my earlier missions trip to Africa. I learned so much through that time. So once again, I am standing in one of the biggest cities in the world and observing the interaction and the people. Don’t get me wrong I have been praying for this country for a couple of years now and now that I am here my heart has been punctured even more so than before. The things going on in this country are heavy and they need prayer. Instead of looking in judgment at the people I look in His eyes and see the beauty and the pain in the people in Seoul. God wants so much for His children to be drawn to Him and their hearts to be circumcised for Him. Right now God has called me to bring HIS LOVE, ENCOURAGING WORDS AND HOPE TO THE PEOPLE OF KOREA!

Jeremiah 9:25-26

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh- Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon Moab and all who live in the desert in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”

*****Thank you for praying for me! God has provided a place for me to stay while I’m in the city of Seoul. If you could keep praying for the below areas that would be wonderful!******

- There is a huge conference in Seoul for “Not For Sale” that I am attending this weekend and I am praying for HUGE doors to open up to get connected. So if you could please pray for connecting with the right people.

- There is a group of women outside of Seoul that have been doing ministry in prostitution/sex trafficking so if you could please pray for protection over them and for the women to come to know Him

- For more men and women groups to open up for sex addiction

- For the younger generation to find their identity in Him and only Him

- For more understanding of what is going on in this Nation as a whole

- More of His confidence of who I am in Him and who He’s called me to be

Planting Seeds Along the Way of Seoul!

Well its been quite the adventure these last few days! God has been providing left and right. So I wanted to stop by and share some awesome stuff God has been doing.  The night before I left I found out that my ticket for South Korea was completely provided for.  That was the last confirmation that I had from the Lord telling me that everything was on His plan for Korea.  As you know God has called me to this country for a few months and pour into the people.  I’m not quite sure how everything is going to work like I said in my last blog, but I trust Him.  I do know that if I did not put those expectations down at His feet I might be in much worse shape right now.  So I flew stand-by the whole way and the entire time God opened up doors and not once did I get bumped to another flight.  Along the way God provided so many times to share His story with people in the airport and my last flight flying into Seoul was first class.  Now that is completely the Lord! I was shocked the whole time and kept saying “really God”? and one of the women that works for the airline looked at me and said “you deserve this.” that was completely from the Lord.  I know God has sent me to Korea for ministry and to pour and bring hope, and His light, but now I know that these next three months are His with only ME.  This is a romance journey with me and the Lord.  I keep thinking how a husband pursues His bride and talks to her tenderly well the Father does that also.  So to encourage you that He will do the same with you just ask Him to allure you into the desert with Him!

Hosea 2:14-15

Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.  There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.

I have been so nervous preparing and traveling knowing that I just don’t know anything, but along the way He took care of everything and is completely showing me He loves me.  So not only did God tell me that He would take care of me, but he did bring someone to the airport to pick me up with a sign with my name on it.  This is something that I prayed about!  yes….I could not believe that God did this all for me! So right now I am staying with a really nice Christian women until God opens up a door for somewhere else to stay.  Since I have been here I have felt so much pressure and lots of uneasiness, but just yesterday I woke up and prayed the armor of God on me and declared His Joy in my life.  No EXPECTATIONS!

I prayed for God to provide a friend.  Just one friend that I could talk to.  So as I ventured off to walking the town I sat in the coffee shop and waited.  Well He opened up a door to sit next to a young lady (she is my age).  Her name is Park she speaks a little bit of english and of course I don’t speak too much Korean, but a tad.   Actually I was pretty surprised with some of the words that flew out of my mouth when I was talking to her Praise God!!! She is a jehovah witness, but its really interesting how God set up this divine appointment! She would tell me to look up scripture and we would read it from my bible.  Of course I cannot read Korean.  I kept thinking about it and realized that this was so much protection from the Father.  I am praying for her heart to be saved and to know the Father.  She asked if we could meet today so I am meeting her again to talk to her about the trinity! Also, she called one of her friends up and passed me the phone and her friend wants to meet with me also.  When I spoke to her friend on the phone she mentioned the prophets in the bible Ezekiel and Isaiah and said she has a hard time understanding them.  So she asked if I could help her.  So I am really shocked by how this is all working out.  SO if I was not obedient to the Father and did not come here these seed would have never been planted.  Maybe somewhere down the road someone else could have been used, but God is using me.  I know that sometimes we don’t see the crop grow, but I know that its important for the seed to be planted!

So as I walk the streets of Seoul  I will sing the song of Him and bring His glory everywhere! 

Prayer requests

Pray for God to show me if He wants me to continue to stay in Seoul

Pray for a permanent living situation

Pray for friends and fellowship

Pray for more divine appointments

Pray for more hearts to be softened in Korea

Pray for the women that are prostitutes in Korea to have more support (they are looked over because its a shame to their family) so as far as ministry goes there is not much

Pray for a Korean Christian to partner up with me that has a heart to minister to prostitute women

Pray for the spirit of pride, control and comparison to be broken

Pray for Park and her friend to know the one true GOD!

For me to keep standing in Joy and confidence in Him and to enjoy this season with Him

Releasing the Expectations

I listened to this sermon a few weeks ago and the pastor was talking about expectations and offenses! It was not only powerful, but I sat in my seat feeling convicted of this! Convicted of not releasing the things that I need to God.   I am getting ready to step foot in Asia again where my spirit battles hard for the people and my body never sleeps, but God always picks me up and gives me strength!

God has given me a heart for Asia and this dream is ready to unfold and start in Korea.  I have been setting high expectations and walking out of some pride.  Which God is breaking daily as I spend the last seven days in Colorado resting in Him.  I tend to always put expectations on everything in my life and it always ends up much different than I anticipate.  That sometimes is where the offense comes into play.  Well one thing the pastor mentioned was “how many times have we missed what God wants us to do because we have expectations”

Well I’m honestly tired of having expectation on the things in my life.  One of the BIG expectations I have released to Him is what am I really going to be doing in Korea? Where am I going to be? Am I going to be loving on orphans? I could keep going on and on about this! But I’m finally at a place in my life where I’m sitting with no expectations and telling God “I don’t care where I am just as long as I am used for your kingdom and get to be with you.”

I know that I am leaving for Korea in four days, but I’m not sure what is going to happen there, but one thing I know for certain is that I am going on a love journey with Him.   I am saying “yes” and taking His hand and relying and trusting in Him for everything.  So I write this small blog to explain to you friends and supporters that I put these expectations at the Fathers feet and trust.   I do know that when I get to Korea more direction will be revealed.  I sit here and write this with total excitement and surprise and I wait for the anticipation of what is about to unravel!

This whole process of preparing for Korea has been hard but absolutely beautiful! So I sit….I wait…..and I walk trusting and knowing that what He has is so much better than I can even imagine!

Proverbs 16:3

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, 

and your plans will succeed.

PRAISE REPORTS SO FAR FOR KOREA!!

God opened a door to get a ticket to Korea that is less than half of the original price

God opened up a door for me to be picked up from the airport and have somewhere to stay for the first few nights

PRAYER REQUESTS

For God to open up doors for ministry with women or children

For God to open up a door to live with a family in Korea

For HUGE divine appointments on the way there (in the airport,plain or anywhere)

For safe travels, everything to go smoothly

Friends/Family to be established there

All the last minute details to fall into place before I head out on Thursday

Health/Rest

See through Gods eyes for Korea and the people

Finances

True Love of the Holder!!!

Looking back at the last 14 months in Georgia I have finally realized that HE LOVES ME!  Now I know what your probably thinking.  That this is something that we all should know because it says it in the bible but I have actually experienced HIS LOVE like never before the last few years.  I knew deep down in my heart there was something more, but I had no clue how to get there and what to do.  Here I am constantly thinking about how I can have more time with Him.  When in reality I spend and share every moment with HIM.

The other day it hit me like a ton of bricks! I don’t know how many times I have heard the question…….

Does He pursue you or do you Pursue Him?

Well I got my answer yesterday as I was studying the book of Hosea.   I got all the way to Hosea 7 and realized He not only has been pursuing me the last couple of years but He has been pursuing me ever since I was a child.  I have so many stories in my life that I have been saved and it’s been Him all along saving me.  Sometimes I make wrong choices and God still picks me up and dusts me off and still tells me He loves me.

I keep asking for more and more of Him and His love all the time and God keeps showing me more and more and sometimes its the most craziest ways and places.  I served this couple the last 9 months that I was on Georgia and God unexpectedly showed me once again how much He loved me by blessing me with this amazing couple and to witness what true love really is.

I remember the first time just like yesterday as I walked into their home and instantly felt the peace and love.  I remember thinking and telling the Lord “really God? Are you really putting me in this wonderful place like this?” The first few weeks of coming to their home the wife would play the piano and it was so beautiful that I would have tears in my eyes.  The pieces she would play sounded like something that would be played in heaven.

God used this couple to answer a prayer that was deep in my heart and has been for a long time.  That true love is really out there.

I walked away at the end of this season knowing what LOVE really is.  As a witness of love between this man and women I can truly explain the love between God and me!  I have always wanted to get to this place and never knew that having a relationship with God could be this wonderful! If you asked me fifteen years ago about being romanced by God I would have thought you were nuts, but NOW RIGHT NOW I can sit anywhere and talk, laugh and cry with Him and He just listens!

So my question for you is ………………

Are you being pursued?

******Prayer Request******

Leave for Korea in less than two months so be praying for complete rest in Him 

Finances ($3,000) for the funds of this trip

Prayer partners to cover me while I’m over there serving

For doors to open with a family to live while I’m there

End well in the states before I leave

To keep trusting Him in everything

1 Chronicles 29:10-13

David praised the Lord in the presense of the whole assembly, saying,

“Praise be to you, O Lord,

God of our father Israel,

from everlasting to everlasting.

Your, O Lord, is the greatness and the power

an the glory and the majesty and the splendor,

for everything in heaven and earth is yours.

Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom;

you are exalted as head over all.

Wealth and honor come from you;

you are the ruler of all things.

In your hands are strength and power

to exalt and give strength to all.

Now, our God, we give you thanks,

and praise your glorious name.

 

MY BIO

Who is Michelle McDonald?

I am a courageous woman of God that will LOVE the Lord with all my heart and fight for KINGDOM everywhere I go.

When did God call me to the mission’s field?

Well, originally, He started speaking to me back in high school about missions, but I was consumed in fear and stuck on myself.  In 2008, I came to the realization that despite my sin, God could still use me…that He wanted to use me, which drove me to walk out of my box, and in effect, I left for Tanzania, Africa on a ten-day missions trip.

For the first time, seeing a different culture and a different part of the world I just knew that God was calling me to much more than what I was living back in the States.  My heart instantly broke on the bus driving 8 hours into our location in Africa.  I knew that my life would never be the same.

I left a few months later and went on an 11-month mission trip to 11 countries bringing the Lord’s love and truth and that’s when I fell in love with ASIA…when God started speaking to me about this Vision of South Korea, ASIA.  Well, three years later, this vision, this dream, is starting to unravel. I am taking a leap of faith, going for it and trusting in HIM.

CLOSING AND OPENING A NEW CHAPTER!!!

Two weeks before I hit the road to travel back to Colorado where family and friends await me before I take off on another exciting over seas missions trip to South Korea, a place where I have never been before, but  God has called me there for a season and I am trusting and walking out of obedience.  I am completely and utterly scared out of my mind, but its not the scared where I should not be doing this but its the scared of WOW I am finally doing this!!!  I’m finally trusting and going after the whispers of my heart…  God is giving me the strength and the ability to do this……YES…. That’s the most exciting thing ever to say! Well let me start off by saying this is where I will be writing every God story (Besides my journal) and sharing what He is doing through this whole process of building His KINGDOM and using me to walk with Him in this.

So this last season (a year) has been in Georgia doing life and building experience before I head out on the field once again.  God has taught me so much this last season.  I have learned to walk humbly in Him and serve serve serve.  I have been a caregiver for the last nine months and its been amazing! Not because the pay is great (just kidding) but because I have learned what its like to stand before someone and be there physically, emotionally and spiritually for them.  I keep thinking about how Jesus served and always put his needs down before others and I can honestly say I have finally felt that in my life down here in Georgia at this job.  This is one area that I have not done well at but I can say that its something that I realized I enjoy doing for others!  So as some of you know I have made some great relationships being out here in Georgia and I hate to give the last hugs bye but as you all know when God calls He calls and you have to make that CHOICE to take His hand and walk forward in the door of FIRE…………

I just got this image in my mind and concept about how God is doing this.  First off when you start out with your very own painting you start out small right? Well the canvas’s getting bigger and the color gets brighter and it starts turning into something.  Well this journey that I have with the Lord is exactly like this painting.  All the people that are involved in this are the colors and eventually all the colors come into the right place and its makes this picture, but its not going to be any kind of picture but its going to be beautiful, there’s going to be love and character all over it! Kind of like a colorful puzzle because every piece will be in the right spot at the right time!

So here goes with going back home and then off off away WE go!!!

the next couple of months in Colorado will be a time of rest, listening to His voice, raising funds, and spending time with friends and family!  I am looking for financial support and prayer supporters.  I am trying to raise $3,000.00 for this next season in Korea.  I would love for you to be apart of this next journey with me and Him!!I am looking for financial and prayer supporters so if you would like to be apart of this with me please let me know. 

Support checks should be made out to “Cross Current Ministries” and then my name “Michelle McDonald” on the memo line and a note with my name sent along with the check!

Checks are mailed to:
Cross Current Ministries
2208 Karen Lane
Gainesville, Ga 30501

PRAYER REQUESTS

-Transitioning back into Colorado

-Prayer supporters while I’m out on the field

-More listening time with God on this vision

-The women and children in Korea

-More divine contacts in Korea

-Financial support

-Peace being back at home for a couple of months

-A time to rest in Him before going to Korea

-Rest