God gave us emotions on purpose. It wasn’t for us to be led by them, but for the expression of the deep things that stir within us. It is also a place within our soul which we may experience the Spirit of God.

Patricia King and the XP Webchurch believe that when we are led by the flesh into prayer, it is a lot of work! It is true that circumstances which influence our emotions, will lead us to pray, but if we remain centered on the commotion of our soul we will miss the power coming from our spirit. Let me explain it another way. When we are upset about something, we go to God in prayer. However, if we continue to focus on the problem and/or the way we feel about it, we won’t be able to tap into the answer which comes by the Spirit. Our emotions can lead us into prayer, but there must come a point where we go beyond what we feel in our soul (mind, will, & emotions) and discover the answers that are found IN HIM! Patricia King teaches us that every ministry failure is a prayer failure. There is so much power in our prayers!

On the flip-side, our emotions can be and indicator of what is happening in our spirit. They are an outlet for what you feel from the Lord. When we go into prayer with our baggage (cares, worries, etc.) we feel one way, but when we leave those natural feelings at His feet and go straight into His presence, we will come out feeling a totally different way ~ emotions turn from heaviness to joy, from worry to excitement, etc. God gave us our emotions on purpose, but, we must come to the place where our spirit affects our emotions instead of our emotions affecting our spirits.

This is the key! As we grow stronger in our spirit by spending time focusing on the Lord, our spirit influences our emotions in a greater way than our emotions influence our spirit. If we pay attention to our emotions, we will have a good idea of our faith level, what we are thinking about, and where we must re-adjust the focus of our thoughts.

“In His presence is fullness of joy!” ~Psalms 16:11

- Gretchen Rodriguez, xp webchurch pastor

Stillness?

Remember when God spoke to Elijah in the STILLNESS? (1 Kings 19:11) We’ve all been taught a great deal about the importance of being still to hear from God, but I was just thinking about something else regarding stillness.

In the season I am in right now, I have much more “still” time than I would like. I honestly don’t remember ever having so much still time. I remember how much I used to cherish times like these and now I cherish the times I am busy! Life’s funny that way, isn’t it? Stillness is quite revealing. Not only does God speak to us in these times, but He reveals much about ourselves during these times as well.

For example, when you have nothing to do (I realize some of you WISH you had nothing to do–sorry about that), what DO you do? Do you watch TV, go online, read a book, talk on the phone, etc.? In our fast paced society, few know how to handle the times they have nothing to do. Instead of sitting down and literally being still, we look for something to fill the time and stillness. It feels odd when we aren’t DOING something, so we do things to keep ourselves busy. I want to present to you that these times of stillness are a gift from God! Not only does our physical body benefit from times of quiet and calm, but our spirit man is being blessed with an opportunity to go beyond itself and tap into deeper levels of awareness of the presence of the Lord and the realm around us.

When you actually have some time to yourself, where do your thoughts go?

Do they begin to worry about various circumstances? Do they focus on how blessed you are? Do you immediately think about earthly things or Heavenly things? Pay attention to what you are thinking! Our wandering thoughts will reveal a lot about places that need to be fully surrendered to the Lord and/or areas that you aren’t fully trusting Him.

Instead of running to the computer or whatever else you do when you have 5 mins of quiet, let me suggest you sit down and turn your thoughts, even if briefly, to the Lord. Few people realize how many of these few minutes of quiet, they have. They are a way for you to LIVE in the presence of God and living in His presence is what we at XP Webchurch are all about!

“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10

- Gretchen Rodriguez, xp webchurch pastor

By Gretchen Rodriguez, xp webchurch pastor

“To worship You I live, to worship you, I live, I live to worship you.” As we sang the words to this song at church, it felt like nothing else mattered in life other than being able to worship God. What a profound blessing it is to be worshipers of God! Patricia King and the XP Webchurch believe that we are a people whose lives are founded upon a lifestyle of loving God and living in such a way that we exhibit His love to the world around us.

There are varying seasons of our life, some flourishing with Kingdom fruit and others spent in the stillness of His presence. But in truth, every season will bear fruit when we are worshipers of God. Regardless of whether we are in a season of stillness or business, it is to be embraced with an attitude and lifestyle of worship. Patricia King has been an amazing example to me of someone who carefully maintains and nourishes her lifestyle of worship, regardless of how busy she is.

A lifestyle of an abandoned worshiper is manifested in fearless love. (1 John 4:18) We aren’t afraid to be vessels of His love towards others. We aren’t afraid when things don’t work out the way we hoped, because as worshipers we rest and trust that He is working things out for our good.

(Romans 8:28) Our hearts are fixated on Him in stillness or in action. A worshiper is one whose life feels incomplete without the honor of pouring out love to the Lord. It doesn’t matter what is happening around us, we are eternally drawn into the presence of the Lord, delighting in Him, as He delights in us.

Our greatest desire is to be found in Him; embraced so fully by Him that we are unrecognizable! Patricia King and the XP Webchurch have a desire to bring honor to Him by allowing others to see Him in us. Let us live in a way that the Lord delights in manifesting Himself through us at all times. We are worshipers who live and breathe His presence and as we do this, His presence becomes evident to others.

“Revive me with Your goblet of wine and refresh me again with Your sweet promises! Help me and hold me for a I am love-sick! I’m longing for more- yet how could I take more?” Song of Solomon 2:5 (The Passion Translation)

By Gretchen Rodriguez, xp webchurch pastor

It is definitely better to experience the bliss of the Lord’s presence and the joy of His nearness, than the fires of purging. However, many have learned over the years that we can have peace and joy even in the midst of the most difficult circumstances, by fixing our hearts and minds relentlessly on the Lord. At any time during trials and spiritual attacks, if we begin to react out of our flesh instead of our spirit, we feel the Fire of God’s passion trying to consume what is not of Him, in order for us to not become contaminated by things like sinful reactions, demonic oppression, etc.

Many people within the body of Christ are experiencing contention inside of us during these trying times. One reason is because the passion that God has for us is trying to draw us into Him instead of away from Him. When we begin to react to our situations in the flesh, we feel the fire of God burning, doing its cleansing work. However, this pain can become one of our longed for friends. As we grow in the Lord, we realize that yielding to the fire of God, embracing our Cross (His mindset for our situation, which crucifies our fleshly desires) should be our immediate response to Him because it yields love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness. (Galatians 5:22)

Patricia King and the XP Webchurch believe that while hard times are hard on our flesh, it is then that we can grow closer to the Lord. When we have the mind of Christ we find ourselves walking through the freedom or the healing, much more quickly than when we carry on with wrong thinking. However, it doesn’t mean that submitting ourselves to His ways doesn’t hurt. It can really hurt! It is crucifying our flesh! But by His grace, the more we yield, the easier it becomes. AND, the faster we abandon our ways for His.

By Gretchen Rodriguez, xp webchurch pastor

All of us have an innate desire to love and be loved; God created us that way. Patricia King and the XP Webchurch believe that we were made to be loved by God, to love Him, and to love others. However, many Christians have a relationship with the Lord that falls short of the deep intimacy with Him that He has called them to. While it is good that we express ourselves through praise, prayer, and warfare, it is deep intimacy that God ultimately desires. All forms of interaction with God in Spirit and Truth are good, but worship takes the focus off of us, straight into Him. When the glory of His love comes, anything that is “fleshly,” or of self, becomes uncomfortable. Our mind kicks in and wants to move, to talk, and to read, etc., because the mind isn’t comfortable surrendering itself in abandoned love to and from God.

That is why Patricia King and the XP Webchurch believe that worshiping and simply loving God, or being intimate with Him is so vital. When we worship the Lord, we are taking everything that is in our heart, our mind, and surrendering all of our strength in order to focus all of our attention on HIM. True intimacy with the Lord can find no thought of self, no desire to pray for self, no need to war; it just rests in His love. In true worship we aren’t concerned about our shortcomings because the truth of who He is captures all of our attention.

One way to “actively” worship and love the Lord is by waiting upon the Him by sitting quietly, with no other thoughts but Him. We direct our mind, all of our thoughts, to Him. By doing this we are conveying that there is nothing more important to us than Him. This is a total surrender of self as we allow the love we have to rise up to meet His love.

For more information on the XP Webchurch, go to xpwebchurch.com!