We had a great time at our 3rd Psalms 102 ministries workshop which occurred on March 5, 2022! We had 7 people show up, compared to 4 the first time. It is growing slowly, but surely as people tell others about their experiences. God is moving, healing, and encouraging hearts which is so amazing to see and experience!
For those who don’t know, Psalms 102 Ministries’ purpose is to educate the church community on how to treat people with mental health challenges, afflictions, and addictions, etc, as well as to intercede for our loved ones who have such challenges. There are many of us at the River Room Church who have loved ones who are suffering.
The title of the 3rd workshop is called, “Believe.” In this workshop we looked at some scriptures related to God’s sovereignty and his ability to change hearts. He can harden or soften a heart. We talked about the story of Pharaoh and how God hardened his heart. We questioned the interplay between our will and God’s will; how God doesn’t take away free will but yet knows the beginning from the end and can see what we will decide and hence plan and control accordingly. We looked at how this might apply to our loved ones lives who may not be cooperating with God to receive healing or deliverance. We looked at instances in the Bible where God orchestrated circumstances to bring about His will and get people back into alignment with His will. This can apply to people or nations. We looked at the story of Hosea and also Jonah as it relates to God bringing about supernatural, divine intervention to bring hearts back to Him and into alignment with His will. We also talked about how God can heal our young children, adult children, family members, loved ones, friends, acquaintances, and even strangers whether near or far away just simply because we ask Him and believe. We looked at some stories where Jesus healed people’s children as well as other’s based on request, regardless of whether their faith was great or little or whether or not they felt worthy enough to receive or not; and even whether the person who needed the healing was present or not to receive. We also looked at many, many different scriptures which illustrated that God healed and delivered everyone who asked. We also looked at the story of Mary Magdeline and how she was used by God after being delivered from 7 demons! We looked at all these stories and scriptures to raise our faith to believe that we can ask God to heal and deliver our loved one/s and really receive it; that God is powerful enough and sovereign enough to work in the most difficult situation to bring about the healing. God loves us and God loves the people we love too. He loves everyone, and it is His will that no one should perish, and everyone should come come into His kingdom to receive the fullness and healing that He provides. He will move Heaven and the Earth to make it happen!
Here is the video teaching.
After the teaching we soaked for about 30 minutes while Lisa White played soothing music on the keyboards. Those of you who want to do this part can find some of your own soothing music to listen to although I provide an example at the end of this post. We invited God to speak to us and encourage us about our particular situation with our loved one/s. We actually had a pen and paper on hand to write down what we heard, sensed, or saw. We called it a love letter from God.
The spirit of God was moving, and He led me to pray over everyone in the room. Hearts were touched by God. Many cried and received much needed encouragement or a dose of inner healing from God.
Following this, we created a card to tuck the love letter from God into which incorporated themes and encouragement from the love letter.
We decorated the card with stamps, stencils, permanent markers, gel pens, watercolors, oil pastels, washi, stickers, embellishments, ribbons, etc. The idea of the card was to have something tangible that we could look at whenever we get discouraged which would remind us of the promises that God gave to us concerning our loved one/s.
Here are some photos from the workshop.
If you are interested into doing the art activity here are some instructions below.
Encouragement Card/Love letter from God.
Supplies needed:
-A blank card.
-Various art materials (whatever you have on hand or want to buy.)
-Ribbon
You can actually buy some blank cards at Michael’s (or any other place that sells blank cards or craft items) which you can paint or decorate, or you could create the kind of tuck card we used with watercolor paper.
Directions for the tuck card: I cut out some watercolor paper to make a long 11x 4 inch strip. Follow along the pictures in order to make the card. A hole puncher will be helpful to have nearby. Fold the right end about 4.25 inches up and towards the left to form the card. It doesn’t have to be precise, but you don’t want it to meet the other end exactly even because the left end is going to create a flap for your right end to tuck under, and we don’t want that end over too far so that it does not get hole punched when we create the flap. If it does go too far and gets hole-punched you can always go back and trim it. The idea is that one side of the card will be able to tuck under the other side to hold it in place. See the photos. Then you’re going to fold about 1.5 inches of your left end towards the right. This will create the tuck. It should just cover your other end of the card by maybe a quarter of an inch so that side can tuck under it. Then you will put 2 hole punches in the vertical middle of the left edge of the left side…but just slightly away from the edge. The two hole punches will be where you put pretty ribbon or yarn to hold the card flap down.
Next, you will want to decorate your card. Try to pay attention to where the front and back of the card are as well as the inside and the outside when you decorate because a lot of people get confused about this. The flap is folded over on the front. That is your front. I used watercolor paint to give the card some pretty color. A cool trick is to get your paper wet by brushing it with water and then drop colors of watercolor on it. If you add salt to the watercolor paint while its wet, then wipe off the salt in the trash when its dry, it will create a cool effect of texture and lighter spots where the salt was. We used various stamps and stencils, but if you don’t have any, its ok. You can just draw a design or simply write words or phrases on your card or cut and paste words or pictures from magazines or things you print out. You could even keep it plain for your letter. It will be pretty enough alone with just the watercolor paint and the ribbon. If you don’t like paint you could glue pieces of scrap booking paper on the card or even tissue paper. There is no right or wrong way to make your card. We also used different stickers and stick-on embellishments from the Dollar Tree such as butterflies and flowers, etc. They usually have such things in the craft section. I even used washi tape on the edge of where my paper folded, but that totally is not necessary. We used clear glitter fabric paint last over certain areas to add a little pizzazz. I always recommend you use the fabric paint last because it takes awhile to dry. Well, next to last. When everything is finished and dry you can add a pretty ribbon. Each end of the ribbon will come through the two holes from the back so that it will tie in the front. You could tie it in a bow or simply let it hang. The ribbon will keep your flap down so that the other end of your card can tuck under.
Here is some soaking music we listened to while creating:
Creative Passages 