This morning I was awoken very early.
I don’t like that, I love my sleep. I always say my creative mind needs to stop and take a breath, but this morning I could feel my brain starting to rev up and it would not quieten so that I could go back to sleep. So I said OK Lord, what it is? Our prophetic writing workshop was bobbing around in my head, boinging back and forth, so I sat up and picked up my phone.
Our son John had sent me a text the night before and I saw it on the screen and then noted the time 4.21….whaaaaaa?
I love numbers and always note signs and messages that come through them, so I picked up my bible from the bedside table. It's a purple bound Passion Translation that I received for my 60th birthday.  I turned to John 4:21.

"Believe me, dear woman, the time has come when you won’t worship the Father on a mountain nor in Jerusalem, but in your heart"
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I love this story, I love how Jesus loves on this woman and how she becomes the first evangelist, but today I felt the Lord say the message wasn’t anything to do with the Samaritan woman, but it landed in my spirit like a big soppy kiss.
Worshipping Him in our hearts. That beautiful relationship that we can have if we want to accept it. I was writing my thoughts in my journal as I pondered this and I wondered how many of us write and wonder if it’s Him? Wonder if maybe after all…. it’s just me, or it may be Him but it’s just for me not others.
In our very very deep hidden parts, what do we really think of the words we write? Why are we writing the words, where are they going? What is the point of them, what should we do with them?
 I was just mulling that over in my mind and browsing the bible app and I saw that the verse for today was Galatians 6:9 and so I looked again in the Passion Translation.

"And don’t allow yourselves to be weary or disheartened in planting good seeds, for the season of reaping the wonderful harvest you’ve planted is coming! 10 Take advantage of every opportunity to be a blessing to others,[a] especially to our brothers and sisters in the family of faith!"

What? He always knows what is in our hearts. We wait for a harvest, for something, for anything to show us we are on the right track. But hey! We worry about nothing. Read this again and then mull it over.
For me it was answering all the questions that I don’t ask out loud. I have published my absolutely awesome prophetic poetry book Heaven is all about Him, and I know and have seen, that it touches people’s hearts. It blew me away when I realised the words were not only for me. They were definitely from Him! The thing is we have to be willing to share them. We have to be brave and say I don’t care if some don’t like them…..I know some need to hear them.
I dip in and out of the book randomly and even now a couple of years after it was published I find hidden treasure in the words that I actually wrote myself. I often read one out to my husband or a friend and say …isn’t that beautiful? I wonder where that came from because I don’t recognise it as mine. My pen writes but the Holy Spirit inspires the words.
Yet I look at it and say….is it really what God wants me to do? I over think it!
The answer is in that scripture from Galatians. “Take advantage of every opportunity to be a blessing to others”.
I love to talk about the stories that have come from my book. Sometimes I am so overwhelmed by the amazingness of God and the randomness of how He lines up the people to read something He has for them, that I cry out of gratitude that He allowed me to be the one to bring the word to that person, for such a time as this and in His perfect timing.
As I was writing this morning, I felt the Spirit speak and another poem was delivered.
I said to the Lord, I guess I’ve felt weary in the past and not really believed that what comes out of my journal, what flows from my pen, is really You…….

Why not? You ask with a twinkle in Your eye
Am I just a feeling that sometimes passes by?
Am I just a fleeting thought in a worldly busy day
Or am I truth and light and love and am I here to stay?
Shut your early morning eyes and hand upon your heart
Forget I’ve dragged you from your bed for a very early start.
Feel the Spirit in you, feel the passion in My word
Are the rhymes that you bring forth the most amazing you have heard?
For these are not your cleverness, you deliver with your pen
and this I’ll keep reminding you over and again
My words, My message My delight, that I gifted you, my love
These seeds I have been planting, will bring your harvest from above.
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I would like it to be a reminder for you to press in, to let go of the naysayers, the doubt in your mind and remember the enemy is the father of lies. Then shout out to the heavens, a cry of praise for God, for He is The Father of truth and love.
How can your words, gleaned from Him, not be a message to others? Believe it in you gut, if you don’t believe it, how can others? If they don’t, then we’ve taken away a precious gift from that person because you have no idea what massive blessing Holy Spirit might have prepared for them through your word’s that seemed so ordinary to you.
I think the Galatians scripture is back to front…it occurs to me that if you do the blessing part – the rest will come. Those seeds will germinate, and the harvest will be so overwhelming it will knock you off your feet!
I believe the poem that I wrote this morning is both for everyone and anyone who feels the Holy Spirit in their writing and for those who want it to be Him and want to learn more.

The last time I visited the UK with John, I was very sad to see the deterioration in dad’s health, but so happy that we made the trip and we were able to spend time with him. It was particularly nice to see John chatting to his grandad as an adult, drinking beer and talking about sport. I knew as we said goodbye and returned to Australia, that it was probably the last time I would hug him and tell him I loved him, in person. 
​After we came to see him in the UK when John was 17 my dad wrote to me and said this about watching  my husband and son together, "when I watched the father / son interplay and family banter with its private humour that exists between him and his dad, I cannot help feeling how much I have missed with the death of Steven at six years of age" 
It breaks my heart how that probably happened with every single father / son he saw.  A lifetime of hurt and regret. A broken heart. That's my biggest joy, my heart is so happy, fit to burst, when I imagine what that reunion would have been like for them both as Jesus took him home.
He was a published author and had written several books….on dogs! On reflecting back, I really wish he’d written about his life. It would have been hilarious and fun but also a thought provoking and compelling read. He started young and accomplished a lot in his 88 years and there is still so much I don’t know about dad. A few years ago, he sent me a copy of his biography written for one of the dog magazines and it is a very interesting read. I wish I’d asked him more questions.
He was also a soldier and there are terrible things that he went through that I never heard him voice and all of that also made him who he was. He  received 5 medals and I believe he would have shown true bravery and excellent leadership when he was out with his war dogs in the jungles.
He was a people person and easily made friends with strangers and they were drawn to his infectious ways and hilarious stories. If I have a trait in me that I see is from him, it’s the ease with which I make friends and the ability to make others laugh and feel included.
Dad had a wonderful singing voice and I have memories of him singing around a piano in the Sergeant’s Mess. We also had little routines that he taught us kids and we were rewarded with packets of crisps and fizzy drinks for entertaining his friends! 
​After losing his only son and the next child being another much loved daughter, he set about trying to be the best dad he could be and worrying that he might let us down.
He wrote to me about that time "When you lose one child from a family of five, it is the child that is lost, but the love you feel for that child stays with you for life"
On being a parent of five daughters he wrote "All you can do is to plant the seed and carry out the early training and lessons in the best way you can and then watch them grow. There comes a time when you have to let them go......when this happens you simply have to watch them, trust them and love them unconditionally until they turn into complete adults that you are proud to call your own"
He was very proud of his girls.....and of course I was his favourite second daughter.
November, a beautiful month to celebrate our son, my dad and my little brother.

 I am a little envious of those people who are wonderfully organised and have everything in its place with their time accounted for and a neat and a well-oiled and dust free brain.
When I first got saved, oh gosh! that was an experience in itself. Who would have thought that Jesus would be interested in me? Of course, it goes without saying that
I was interested in me, I put ME first nearly all the time, but it wasn’t really working out for me. I had strife in my business, and I was a selfish wife to my lovely husband.
I was on the hit lists of many Christian friends. I think they were amazed and open mouthed when I finally turned up at church to “check it out”, there was a scurry of texts flying around “Jan’s coming to church” and it’s hilarious to find out afterwards just how well organised they were, they all had my salvation at heart.
I’ve learnt since then to understand that even if those we speak to don’t want to know God – Holy Spirit waters every single seed that we sow. I would be interested to see just how many seeds were following me around……it would have looked like the bottom of a very large and well populated budgie cage!
Anyhow, I was in tears all through the service, and I found myself on my knees at the front giving my life to Jesus as Pastor Royree led me through the salvation prayer. I remember feeling a massive sense of relief and I didn’t know why, but ever since then I have carried peace with me everywhere I go.
So off I go into this very wonderful and sometimes more than a little bit weird world of “being a Christian”
Before I got saved I did believe in God, I went to Sunday school as an army kid and I even went to church for a year in Wales after I married Philip, but that was just so that I could get our son enrolled into the church school (a very deliberate and not too honest strategy that worked a treat!)
However, I didn’t know that being a Christian means following the teachings of Jesus and living life the way He would have. I thought a Christian was someone who believed in God, but not so. Christian actually means ‘follower of Christ’
After about a week my mentor and friend Christine Gear (who has since gone to heaven) suggested that I journal. She said that I should write my questions, worries, ideas, thank you’s and just general chit chat in the journal and it would give me answers and bring me closer to God. I really liked Christine and even though I thought that was very weird to suggest chatting to God through a journal, I went and chose a very posh, velvety covered, gold embossed journal and started to meet with God every single morning for an hour, writing about everything that was in me.
To my amazement I was also writing the answers, but after a little while of feeling very clever, I started to believe that actually it was God that was conversing with me. I really wasn’t that smart!
That’s when the rhymes and poems started emerging.  I would read back through my week and think I must have seen that somewhere before because it didn’t seem like I had written it. Even now, as I dip into a poem in my book I often think “wow – that’s so beautiful! Go God!”
So, at that time, I was writing my journal every day for an hour. Nowadays I don’t do that, seasons change, and I am more sporadic that I was then, I dip in and out and this is my point. There are no rules, what works for one person may not necessarily be something that someone else would do. Check out my post on the Top ten tips to journaling.


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​During my daily journaling , I wrote a children’s rhyme about the Good Samaritan which was very random and popped up amongst the poems sent by the Holy Spirit.
When the children's teacher at our church was off sick, I loaned it to the lady who was replacing her for the day, as there was no lesson prepared.
The Good Samaritan was a hit, I was asked to read it to them, and the children discussed what it would be like to be like him today, and then they acted it out in small groups.
The suggestion after that was why not get it published and then once I had decided to do it, I had to find an illustrator.
Somehow, the illustrator that was found was me.  I had done a year in Art College 40 years previously but had decided it wasn't for me as a career, and even though I could draw passably I had no secret desire to paint or illustrate professionally.
A friend gave me some watercolour paints and brushes and said she believed I was supposed to do it,  she was very tuned in to the Holy Spirit and so I did.
The Good Samaritan was published on January 22nd 2018, my 60th birthday and  The Good Samaritan Companion - puzzle and colouring book, was written in March 2018 to accompany the story.
I have finished the Prodigal Son and there will also be 2 more in the parable series.
As this became a part of my plan going forward I really felt during my quiet times that God was encouraging me to write about 4 things which He feels are important to today's modern technology swamped children.
These are being kind to others, acknowledging inner gifts and talents, forgiving others as well as themselves, and of course love. Specifically love of themselves, as well as love of others. The overriding message from God was that they should always believe, no matter their circumstances, that they are loved. Whether they might be in a situation where there is not much love in the family or somewhere that love had seemed to have disappeared, or died or taken from them, that it is still all around them and that they are always loved.
I want these books to be accepted in non Christian schools as well, because the messages behind them are timeless. 
The Prodigal Son was released via a Kickstarter in March 2019 and is now in print
There are many more ideas in my ever-so crowded head and I am excited to see them all come to fruition and do a work in our gorgeous children, to give them a place to sit and read the rhymes and get a touch of God in their day.