Radiance

RADIANCE. I love the word radiance. I wrote it on my bathroom mirror once. To be called radiant is one of the nicest compliments I’ve ever received. I think it is evidence of God’s Holy Spirit shining in my life. I love the Lord and Jesus lives inside me. I have to give Him credit! His presence is so beautiful. Isn’t it amazing our Lord and King gives us His presence? What a gift! In the mornings, before I get out of bed, I give Him my gratitude list. Today I thanked Him for His RADIANCE. “You show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” Psalm 16:11 & Acts 2:28. (My favorite verse in the Bible.)

SHE…Who Dances by Fire By Diana Summers

SHE…Who Dances by Fire

By Diana Summers

April 1, 2013

I have called forth

a new brand of believer

from my Body

saith Christ…

Hand picked and preordained…

they are the very

Apple of Mine Eye…

Consecrated…yea…completed

walking HOLY and BLAMELESS

with Me…

Hand in hand and

HEART to HEART

these remnant

LOVE VESSELS

shall sweep the lands…

and their LIGHT

shall shine forth

as the very SUN!!

this Woman…

…My BRIDE…

shall stage

a RADICAL DEMONSTRATION

as SHE

walks in the close place

of IMMUNITY

sheltered-sealed ‘neath Mine Wing…

Yea…SHE is held secure

in Mine Great Palm

and sealed by the Kiss of My gratitude

for Her

OBEDIENCE…

Oh how I love Her…

How I LOVE HER…

And proclaim to all

that nothing shall touch Her…

NO…NOTHING

as SHE reaps with JOY

what many before have sown…

SHE is exquisite!!

So beautiful…So RARE

Mine Own TREASURE

Mine Own BODY

FLESH and BLOOD…

MINE BRIDE!!

Yea

all of Heaven rejoices now

as We watch HER…

this beautiful

stunning

BODY of MINE…

Detached from all that binds

consecrated

and grafted into the Kingdom of LIGHT

abiding confidently

in My Provision…

In My Healing…

Is SHE not glorious

as SHE moves in perfect FREEDOM

and in My abundance

poured out for Her

in the last days’ Grace?

…COME…

My darling Bride

…COME…

COME and dance…DANCE

DANCE

DANCE

in FIRE

in LOVE

in POWER

…COME…

Join Me completely

for the final victory…

for the

DANCE of FIRE.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Come] and, like living stones

be yourselves built into a spiritual house

for a holy (dedicated, consecrated) priesthood,

to offer up [those] spiritual sacrifices

[that are] acceptable and pleasing to God

through Jesus Christ.

I Peter 2:5

In a work by the late E.E. Brooks entitled “The Dance of the Virgin,” he explained how the word “dance” means to “birth.” I find that so magnificent for are we not birthing more souls into the Kingdom of God?

I sense that we are each experiencing a mighty interior expectancy as the world grows darker and the Holy Spirit works with vigor preparing us for our ascension in order to do our work in Union with Jesus and Father. Hallelujah!!!

(To read more of Diana Summers writings, see her blog: http://www.heartoftheeagle.org/blog/)

Joyous Noel

When I was just a little girl about five years old, I loved the Christmas carols “Oh Come all Ye Faithful”, “The First Noel” and “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” I sang them over and over again and they became a part of me, imprinted on my memory. Now at Christmas time, it is still one of my favorite things to do to sing Christmas carols. Christmas doesn't feel like Christmas without singing those old time Christmas stories put to music.

During our “Prayer Watch” on Friday night the seven of us women were wondering what Noel really meant and so we looked it up. It is a word for the Christmas season of joy and runs from December 24 to January 6^th. So we decided to keep on celebrating this year and hold onto the joys of Christmas time and to me that means to keep singing! The Wise Men arrived after Jesus was born, so “We Three Kings” is a perfect song to sing for a joyous Noel.

Every year I like to think of something homemade to give for special gifts for friends and family. This year I made up booklets of Christmas carols with my top ten favorites. How handy to give them out just in time to do some singing! Usually people oblige me a few songs. Personally, I’d like to sing for a couple of hours! Hahaha!

This fall I took a watercolor painting class and I learned a technique with salt to make “salt stars.” The teacher gave me the class and supplies in exchange for working for her for about ten hours helping her sell her paintings and notecards at Scandinavian festivals. She provided paint brushes, a paint palette full of the basic colors of watercolor paint arranged in a color wheel, and she gave me odds and ends of watercolor paper of various quality and the last few pages in several tablets. Each color reacts with the salt a little differently, but I really like the way the midnight blue was soaked up by the grains of salt to make amazing “salt stars.”

Reading my Bible one morning I decided to read about the star the wise men followed. This one verse popped out to me. “When the wise men saw the star, they were thrilled with ecstatic joy.” (See Matthew 2:10 Amplified.) I decided to paint beautiful blue skies full of salt stars, but to mask off a bit of sky using masking tape cut into the shape of the special star the wise men followed. I think that was the hardest part—cutting out those stars on the sticky tape! At the bottom of each painting I wrote out the verse. What a great gift and Christmas card in one!

I started out with small three by five inch paintings, and as I gained in confidence I cut a bigger piece of watercolor paper to do four by six inch paintings. Then I got brave and did a few five by sevens. The technique is done with sprinkling salt. You paint the area with water, then add a few strokes of paint and wait until it is almost dry and quickly sprinkle on the salt very lightly—almost a grain at a time. There is this magical chemical reaction before your very eyes as the salt absorbs the pigment/color of the paint and makes a crystalline pattern—like snow or a starry night! You wait until the watercolor paper is completely dry, then wipe off the salt. It is amazing how each one comes out differently.

SO fun! I used every bit of watercolor paper I had, and almost all my midnight blue paint, because I didn’t want to stop. I got so absorbed in my project I stayed up until two in the morning painting!

The theme for Kingdom Bloggers this week is a favorite Christmas memory—my painting is one of them. Hahaha! I guess it shows I love my life, I’m enjoying the present, and living in the “now”. Have A JOYOUS NOEL everyone!!!

Always Christmas

God created us to be full of His JOY and 
to enjoy being His beloved sons and daughters
living an abundant life in His presence.
When we abide in Him, we shine for Him!
The Westminster Catechism states: 
"Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever." 
Jesus said He has given us His glory (See Jn. 17:22.) 

and that we are the light of the world (See Mat. 5:14.). 
Just as we celebrate Thanksgiving every day, 
"In everything give thanks." (See 1Thes. 5:18.)
Let's celebrate Christmas EVERY day
and shine like stars in this dark world!

Secrets of a Joyful Life

One of the turning points of my life is when I learned to be joyful. Yes, joy is a byproduct of our spiritual life, and the mark of a true follower of Jesus, but we can foster it and we have choices to make. In my Bible reading I realized how many instructions there were about being joyful—it isn’t just automatic for a believer. In Philippians 4 we read about letting our mind dwell on whatever is good and whatever is worthy of praise. There are many, many verses about how we are to be joyful and praise God, sing to Him, thank Him, and rejoice always.

For the Lord takes pleasure in His people…Let the people be joyful…Let them sing aloud on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth.                           (See Psalm 149:4-6.)

Let my mouth be filled with Your praise all the day. (See Psalm 7:8.)

Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth! (See Psalm 66:1)

Another revelation to me is that complaining is a sin. I had to break bad habits of complaining and criticizing. In The Scripture commands us (See Phil. 2:14.) to do all things without complaining. Whew! That is a hard one. One day I came across a verse, Numbers 11:20, in which God calls complaining despising the Lord. Yikes! Have you ever tried to go a day without complaining? Or a week? Try it--it is not so easy!

I took a 17 hour road trip from Washington to California with four teenagers. We had a contest where I gave a ticket to anyone who complained and whoever had the most tickets lost. It was my idea because I thought the time together would be so much more enjoyable if we were not complaining. Guess who lost? Me! I bought the four of them ice-cream to reward them. We still laugh over that one. Hahaha!

Complaining leads to self-pity. Self-pity is just that—a pit. It is just about opposite of joy. As a young Christian in youth group we were assigned prayer partners for one school year. Mine taught me a valuable lesson—turn each complaint into a prayer. This is what we see David did in the Psalms. “I cried unto the Lord…”  What happens when we turn complaints into prayers is a very interesting thing. We have to wait. Yes, we then wait on God for answers, so we have to trust Him with our lives and all the things we are unhappy with. When He answers, which He is always faithful to do, the result is…JOY!

In the classic book “The Christians Secret of a Happy Life” the author, Hannah Whitall Smith, repeatedly discusses the choice of happiness. She writes, “It is altogether the way we look at things, whether we think they are crosses or not. I am ashamed to think that any Christian should ever put on a long face…”

Our family home schooled for about fifteen years. We have one daughter, who we named Valerie Joy. (Yes, she is a joy in our lives!) When she was 11 years old she started a magazine for girls and called it “Joyful Heart”. She and I worked on this together and gained subscribers and each month mailed out a few hundred copies. It was a lot of fun researching, writing articles, getting articles and interviews from the subscribers, finding clip art to go with the writings, proofreading, and putting it all together. We xeroxed it at the copy shop with a pink paper cover. Those are happy memories of days long ago now. Joyful Heart Magazine was published for three years from 1999 to 2001. After a year or so, we changed to a quarterly because it was so much work. Here’s a photograph of the 24 issues we published.

Joyful Heart Magazine, 24 Issues

In every issue we included Bible verses, quotes from books, and stories from girls about being joyful. To write on joy today brings back memories of those “Joyful Heart” days. One of the quotes I like, that we published in one of the magazines, is from the life story of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the author of “The Little House on the Prairie” books. “If we expect to enjoy our life, we will have to learn to be joyful in all of it…the habit of mind…”

I have found the habit of gratitude and giving God thanks and praise leads to joy. Psalm 100:4 says we enter His gates, (His presence) when we have thanksgiving in our hearts.) In the Message Bible this verse says “THANK YOU is the password to His presence.” My very favorite verse in the Bible (it is actually in two places, in both the Old Testament and the New Testament) is about JOY.

“You show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy.”                         (See Psalm 16:11 and Acts 2:28.)

Mission Statement of Jenna Vick Silliman

I am a woman that is led by the Holy Spirit whose passion in this lifetime is to see God’s abundant life and love manifested here on earth; to carry the fire of God and to shine for Him. “Our God is a consuming fire.” (See Hebrews 12:29.) I have been called "A Divine Arsonist" and I agree!

I am blessed to be a wife to Cliff, a mother to eight awesome children, and to be a writer, a communicator, and a dancer and flagger for worship and intercession. Dancing in the Holy Spirit has become a passion and a ministry in an of itself, but it is not my sole mission in life.

First and foremost I am a seeker of God’s Kingdom of joy and power in His Holy Spirit. His Kingdom is within us, here and now, heaven on earth—eternity has begun! Jesus said, “This is eternal life, to intimately know God.” (See John 17:3.) I am a worshipper of the One God, the Almighty King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I love Him with my whole self and enjoy unbroken fellowship with Him, giving Him thanks and rejoicing always. I am His little girl and I trust my Papa God. I delight in knowing Him and hearing His voice and He delights in me and hearing my voice. Day by day I seek to know Him more and know His Word. 

I love to soak in His Presence, like basking in the sun!

My life Scripture verse is: 

“You show me the path for my life; 

In Your Presence is fullness of JOY, 

At Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.” 

This verse is in the Bible two times, in both the Old and the New Testaments. 

See Psalm 16:11 and Acts 2:28.

 I am a devoted follower of Jesus Christ and I live in the power of His Holy Spirit, His anointing, His calling. As Jesus did, I do. As Jesus prayed, I pray. I am a prayer warrior; my prayers are powerful and effective. Like Jesus, I am a mediator, a connecting link, between people and Papa God and the destiny He has for each one. Like Jesus, I am a revealer of truth, a storyteller; I share testimonies, parables, spiritual awareness, and Bible stories—as the Spirit leads. Like Jesus, I am powerful. He said we would do far greater things than Him; therefore I will heal the sick, raise the dead, destroy the works of the devil, and perform miracles just like my Lord and King. “As Jesus is, so are we in this world.” (See 1 John 4:17.)

I am a creative person with unlimited potential because all things are possible with God. I am a living epistle, a letter, to be read by anyone. “Always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope you have.” (See 1 Peter 3:15.) I am ready, willing, and able to do whatever Papa God tells me to do.

I am a minister and I live to make God’s truth known. I live by the awesome seven ‘F’ words that I preached on at Deep River Church: Focused, Faithful, Fulfilled, Free, Fearless, Fun-loving, and Firey! I believe the words of John Wimber, “There is only one ministry and that's the ministry of Jesus. If you find out what He's doing and participate with Him, that's where you'll find what you're made for and with it you'll find joy.”

I AM ALL OUT FOR JESUS and on fire with the good news of great joy, abundant life, and healing for all! Carpe Diem…Seize the day! GO FOR IT!

How I Met Jesus

On a day in early springtime, I rode on a big yellow bus with a bunch of other kids up to the Santa Cruz Mountains of California to a Young Life retreat weekend at Mount Hermon Conference Center. The cherry trees were covered with showy blossoms. During the day we played games and did a lot of singing. One of the leaders asked me, “Are you a Christian?”

I gave her a puzzled reply, “Of course! Isn’t everybody? Isn’t this a Christian nation?”

The speaker that night told of God’s great love for me. He quoted Bible verses about how God loved me so much that He came to earth in the form of a sinless man and died for me to pay for my sins. Jesus died for ME!? This was news—He did it for me, personally. Wow! I also never knew that Jesus was God—I thought He was just a cool guy and a good example to follow. Jesus is God! Amazing! With new thoughts going around in my head, the speaker gave us a fifteen-minute quiet time. We were to walk out in complete silence and go somewhere alone to talk to Jesus/God.

I sat under one of those blooming cherry trees, looked up at the stars, and cried my heart out. In the midst of much confusion, because I thought I was already a Christian just by attending the Catholic Church and being a U.S. citizen, I talked to the Lord Jesus for the first time. I thanked Him for His death for my sins. I thanked Him for His love. I remember feeling a deep sense of relief and I felt settled in my heart about my faith when I got done praying.

When I walked back to my cabin, my Young Life leader smiled at me. My eyes were red from crying, but I smiled right back at her and looked into her sparkling eyes. I could tell she knew. She asked me again, “Are you a Christian now?”

I said, “Yes! I am now!” She took both my hands and jumped up and down and spun me around and laughed. Then she opened her Bible and shared a Scripture verse that has become one of my favorites.


2 Corinthians 5:17,18 If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.


She had a little butterfly drawn in the margin of her Bible by this verse. She explained that a good analogy of becoming a Christian, is a butterfly coming out of a cocoon—a new creation. It is coming alive, spiritually, on the inside. In the Bible, Jesus calls it being “born again.” In fact, Jesus said, “You must be born again.” John 3:7

The next day I bought myself a Bible in the camp bookstore. I wrote my name inside the cover and copied out “my” verse and drew a butterfly beside it. Then I wrote down the date I became a new creation and started a new life in Christ—March 25, 1974.

I committed to reading two pages of the Bible, God’s Words to me, each day. On March 25 this year, 2012, I celebrate 38 years of life with Jesus, and He has been much more than my redeemer. He is my creator, my friend, my counselor, my provider, my strength, my teacher, my father, and He has even been a mother to me. Because we as Christians are the Bride of Christ, I have also come to know Jesus as my Groom, the love of my life. Jesus said, “This is eternal life that you KNOW Me.” John 17:3 Isn’t it amazing that we can know the Lord of all creation a little bit better every day?

Thank You, Jesus, for Your love, Your life, and Your JOY. I’m so glad I met You 38 years ago. I love You, God! 

"You show me the path of life and in Your presence is fullness of JOY!"

See Psalm 16:11 and Acts 2:28.

My watercolor painting of cherry blossoms celebrating 39 years today! 3-25-13