Birthday Post - I'm 33! Reflecting on my first year as a born again believer.

I’m 33!

Yesterday (Tuesday, Sep 26, 2023) was my birthday.

I became a Christian last year - it’s my first full year as a born-again believer. 

Though I grew up in church I don’t feel that I had a saving faith as my heart did not fully grasp the truth of the gospel.

I had a general revelation of God and His Word but looking back I really don’t feel that I was saved.

The reason for that is because my true salvation last year felt so radical and life-altering that it pierced my heart and changed me forever.

Before I was saved I wandered and looked for truth in mystical traditions and spiritual systems like Chinese I Ching, Human Design, Gene Keys, Spiritual Kinesiology and basically whatever else appealed to me. I was sincere in my pursuit but sincerely deceived.

Until God led me to the truth of the Gospel.

As a result, this year has been kind of wild.

I have made serious changes in every area of my life in response to the Gospel being brought to me by the power and love of God.

One of the most prominent areas of change has been my business. 

A belief system is a way of being - and it has a massive impact on our biological and physiological structure. I believed all kinds of things about money, about power, about the spirituality of entrepreneurship. About life itself.

Things that seemed very true and viable at the time.  

But my belief systems radically changed when I got saved.

The truth sets you free - it also shakes everything that can be shaken.

God shook up my world in every way until only what could not be shaken remained - The truth of His Word, His Holy Spirit and His Gospel.

Witnessing myself go through this journey has been quite profound for me based on my field of study (the nervous system, neuroplasticity).

The Bible says that when we come to Christ we are a new creature. That the old passes away. I have felt that on a physical level - the old passing away. The neural pathways being pruned off and dying as God establishes new neuroplasticity that is grounded in His Word and His truth.

Old and massive parts of my identity being burned away.

I have witnessed myself try to cling to old structures of control that are spiritually bankrupt and have no power to satisfy.

I have witnessed my own need for control and refusal to surrender certain chambers of my heart.

And I have witnessed the love, tender mercy and power of God to show me the way again, and bring me to abide in Him.

God completely re-aligned what it meant to be an entrepreneur for me. He showed me things about money, about how it belongs to Him and not to me. How He desires my business to be a place that serves and advances His Kingdom - a place where He is the center, where Jesus is glorified. Where The power of Christ shows up in my weakness. 

God has brought me on a journey this year of learning to depend on Him completely.

And that has been a humbling and yet satisfying process. And my faith in God’s provision has grown exponentially.

I used to believe I was a divine Creator. This year has taught me there is only one Creator - and only one God and it is not me. I am not God, I am not a piece of God. I am a creature - a created being made in the image of God - designed to be in union with Jesus and live for Him. And that is so freeing.

I used to believe nature was sacred. I now know that nature was cursed as a result of sin and while it still holds beauty, its beauty points to the unfathomable glory of God - it is not perfect and will not be perfect until the New Heaven and the New Earth. And that all of creation awaits the coming of Christ and in fact testifies to the goodness of God.

I used to believe that the body could measure truth - I now know that our bodies and impulses have been tainted by a sinful nature and can lead us down paths of destruction if we do not know the path of life as revealed by the Holy Spirit of God which is the spirit of truth.

I now know that the body is created in the image of God, intelligently designed, and that we have dignity, but that the only measure of truth is God and His Word. And that the human body is fallible as a result of sin.

I now see the body as God’s temple that is to be honored - a place where God is to be glorified - where His Holy Spirit dwells when we receive salvation. And its intricate design is a work of the vast genius of our Creator. 

Before last year I cringed at phrases like “I need God” “I depend on God”
I felt these phrases were weak and despicable. After all, I felt that I myself was Divine.

But God has brought me a mighty long way. And I now recognize that nothing exists without the very sustaining power of God’s hand.

The truth has set my spirit free.

I am grateful for God’s mercy - for His saving Grace and power that has run through my life like a river and brought healing to every single part of me. 

On Monday, my husband and I went to the Nordik Thermal Spa to celebrate my birthday and had a beautiful day there. And every few moments that day, I would feel the abiding presence of the Lord. I felt a deep gratitude for His goodness and His faithfulness to me.

I have never experienced soul rest before salvation. And I enjoyed the beautiful spa time and physical rest and quality time with my husband but I relished in the beautiful spiritual rest that my soul felt as well.

I am so grateful for another year to be led by The steady hand of God and watch Him carry me from faith to faith and glory to glory.

If you do not know Christ, the Gospel is the Good News.

Humans are sinful and corruptible, we stumble and we fall.

We think we know the way, we think we are wise - but we are not.

We fail others and we fail ourselves. 

But Jesus came.

He lived a perfect life, He died innocently and was tortured for our sins.

He rose again on the third day.

And the gift of salvation is freely received when you receive His sacrifice. 

Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life.

He is the only Wise God.

He loves you and He has made a statement of His precious love on Calvary thousands of years ago.

He rose from the grave and defeated sin.

When you receive the gift of salvation, turn from sin, and make Jesus the Lord of your life, He will give you His Holy Spirit which is the Spirit of Truth.

He will satisfy the deepest longings and achings of your spirit. And He seals you with His love for Eternity.

He saved me. I am no better than you. I am a sinner in need of His grace and precious mercy that He has lavishly poured out upon me like rain. He has lifted me up to heavenly places with Him not because of anything I’ve done. But because of the beauty of who He is.

God is good.

And, He can do the same for you.

Romans 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Romans 8:18-28
For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that[h] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[i] have been called according to his purpose.  For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.  And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Want to work with me 1-1? Go to www.shylacash.com/jumpstart

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