Greetings Beloved Illustrated Faith Tribe!
Day 15 Gratitude Documented Prompt is Holy Spirit. The scripture reference is found in a short little book in the New Testament called Jude. The book of Jude is a warning and a declaration of the danger of wandering, of sin, of division in the church, and of men’s fleshly desires running rampant. Sobering indeed. The words and dangers make me tremble in my boots. My heart cries “Lord, don’t let us get caught in the enemy’s snares!” It’s the enemy that wants us to follow our flesh. It’s the enemy who wants to divide the church.
But God.
He never just leaves His children with just warnings or even rebuke. He always provides a way out. A way back into fellowship and redemption with Him.
The title before verse 17 is “A Call to Persevere” and what follows is a prescription for keeping our heart, mind and body in check with the will of our Lord. A prescription for keeping the waves and winds of everything against the will of the Lord in alignment.
A Call to Persevere
But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.
Jude 17-21 ESV
The whole book made me think of the power of the wind and the power of the Spirit. How both move everything around them in a focused direction. We don’t often “see” the wind and we don’t “see” His Spirit but we do see what is moving within the currents.
The Lord tells us to keep ourselves in the love of God and to pray in the Holy Spirit. To draw ourselves so close to Him in prayer and yielding that we can’t help but allow the current of His Spirit to move us in the right direction. And when we move in the right direction, what is around us tends to follow just like fall leaves follow the wind. When we are filled and moved by His Spirit, the thoughts of our heart and mind align with His truth. We find courage in places of fear. We find peace in places of unrest. We speak with love and kindness instead of frustration. We forgive instead of hate. And the tide changes, the direction of the currents around us change, and we move toward God and not away.
I decided to use the parable of the wind and the leaves as my illustration for remaining in the current of His love and to remind myself of the power of prayer in Holy Spirit.
Let’s journal truth friends.
Last time I used the wax resist stick, I made a mistake and used my craft heat tool which turned my wax marks into a greyish lines. You can see the post here. I decided to take this “mistake” and use it.
Isn’t that how God works if we let Him?
Mistakes are just learning tools when submitted into His hands.
I had a vision of the Holy Spirit organizing the sweeping leaves of our circumstances, mistakes, and heart thoughts as we pray. The Lord has the ability to organize bits and pieces of our lives and move us in a powerful direction.
I began by making sweeping marks with my wax stick.
I love to use a similar theme to unify journal entries in a series. Lots of the Illustrated Faith community “marked” their gratitude documented pages with the washi tape.
I decided I wanted to use watercolor splatters on all of my pages. I mixed up my colors to match the freebe November 14 prompt wordfetti and had fun!
Teal first.
You can achieve all different kinds of splatters by changing your brush shape, brush size, and how you “bump” the pigment off the brush.
Larger brushes will drop larger amounts. I am using a medium size round brush here. I am holding my brush in my left hand and then using my free hand to “tap” firmly straight down on the handle. This distributes the drops in a rounded fashion.
Next I use my craft heat tool to dry the droplets and to bring my wax marks into view. The wax sticks are almost like using a fabric marking tool when you sew.
I cut out the leaves from the free Gratitude Documented Wordfetti printable. You can see the wax marks on the page below.
I organized my lettering to see where I wanted to place my scattered leaves.
I love to place stickers off the page. You can see me trimming edges here.
Once I have my leaves in place, I carefully lifted the lettering so I can add black lines and watercolors in the pattern I established with the wax stick.
Adding Watercolors.
And more watercolors.
Oh so pretty! It’s hard to see but where the wax lines are, there is still a bit of resist with the watercolors. I love it.
I wanted a bit of my own writing in the entry so I wrote “in the” with my Illustrated Faith precision pen.
Bringing back the lettering. You can see I changed it up a bit. I always leave room for God to redesign.
I used the letters from the Gratitude Documented Fundamentals Sticker sheet for the word “Holy” and a combination of the large black letters and letters I cut out from Gratitude Documented paper.
Working on the tab area. Using the wordfetti pieces for each day adds a further touch of continuity. I just adore them. Often, I don’t even underline the key scripture because it is detailed in the wordfetti.
And I cut out the “Gratitude Documented” from above the leaves on the free printable to further identify my journal entries as a series.
A heart from the Gratitude Documented Kit.
Date Stamp.
Oh love.
A bit of the texture from the devo clear sticker sheet to hold my paper clip in place.
I love this tab area. Tells so much of the story. And that grateful clip — all the heart eyes.
This may be a favorite. God is good.
I want to see your posts from our Gratitude Documented challenge, especially if you try the splatters or the wax stick. Tag me! @designsbyamybruce on Instagram or post on our pop up facebook page.
And when the world or your flesh threaten to sweep you away with circumstances, stop, focus and pray in the Spirit so He can gather your heart, mind, and body and bring them back into alignment with His perfect will.
Lots of hugs,
amy
additional supplies: Daniel Smith Watercolors – various used in mixing