Hi friends!

I hope this finds you in a place of grace and growth with our Lord Jesus Christ at the end of 2023. I have grown a lot this year in ways I was praying for but, to be honest, had no clue how it would happen! I just knew to listen and obey God because He always brings life into every situation.

At the beginning of this year the Lord gave me the words expansion and increase. I thought it was for my business ministry but, as much as I have been able to help more people with added group programs, that really isn’t what the Lord meant for me.

The explosive expansion and increase in my life has been in relationships I hold so dear in my heart. Not only did the Lord show me how to have the best friendship with the best friend I could ask for, but He also taught me how to enter into much deeper relationships with my parents and my children. He did it in a way I did not know would happen - He took me through some deeper inner healing in my own heart first!

As He touched me, He mended my heart, healing the unconscious wounds that affected my core beliefs and the way I saw myself and the world. He used my story to reveal other people’s stories in a deeper way than I had already understood them - which I kind of thought I already understood well! Eek.

So now more than ever, I value experiential knowledge above other knowledge, it is a game changer for the Holy Spirit to bring clarity. I love the saying “don’t judge what you don’t understand” in this context, it has taught me what it means when I judge what I don’t actually understand, but instead only think that I understand. It goes back to the old cliche: don't judge a man until you walk a mile in his shoes.

Learning through experience sure helps knock some sense into my mind, clearing things up when I have been judging things with only a rough understanding- the detached kind of understanding that comes from reasoning, observation and reflection based on other people’s information, or even just partial understanding through experience. I think that partial experiential understanding is where I have erred most in my walk with people, thinking that I understand enough experientially to make a judgement, but as my eyes have been opened even more I can see through a deeper lens with so much greater understanding, which I have found always shows up with more mercy, love and respect for others. (Read Proverbs 4 and 8, especially 4:1, 7-13, 26, 8:1,5,12-14)

Through my own deeper inner healing, I can now make a statement that I choose to live from moment to moment: I can only relate to others proportionally to the truth God reveals to me about my own experiences as a human being.

The other ways of bringing understanding are okay and important to support learning through experience, but any experience I have as a human being can be turned for good going forward as I humbly receive the good and humbly let the Lord heal the bad. In turn, all my experiential learning can bring me closer to others and form Christ in me (Gen 50:20, Rom 8:28).

Take Away # 1 - experiential knowledge is the most powerful type of knowledge God gives me and anything I have gone through can be used for good going forward, as long as I let Him turn it around for good!

So, in the ways only our Wonderful Counsellor can do it, He has helped me be the light for more healing and restoration in these very special relationships of mine. We just keep going deeper in love and intimacy, the thing I wanted most but didn’t know how to get! And for those of you still searching for physical, mental, and emotional healing, I can’t overstate how powerful relational healing can be for you in your overall recovery journey! As the walls come down you can give and receive more love, and love is so healing for your body.

In my own story, I knew Intimacy requires vulnerability and authenticity and I just wasn’t sure how to be more vulnerable and authentic with my close circle of people. There were still walls up in my heart even though I didn’t want them there, and sometimes in theirs as well. I also didn’t know how to walk this relational healing out without telling them I am doing it! Talking about it just seems to make things more awkward and burdensome for me, like “Hey, I want to get closer to you so I am going to work on some things and see how they impact our relationship. Are you good with being my experiment for restoring/deepening intimacy?”.

So with the Lord as my Teacher, I used the neuroplasticity framework from the tools God showed me for my body’s healing, the same ones I teach and coach to others, and through His leading, He worked on my heart and opened me up to be a vessel for deeper relationships! It has been the best gift, better than any other kind of expansion and increase I could have expected! What a God we have, always better than we could ever imagine! I feel closer to my children than ever and I feel such a deep sense of being a beloved child of my mom and dad - what a gift for this year!

My 15 year old son tells me how much he loves me and hugs me a lot, wants to spend time hanging out with just me, and he listens to me intently as I share my wisdom. Just last night I watched him on the basketball court putting in place the thing I have taught him to help him improve his shooting! It was such a great example of the fruitfulness of our deepening intimacy instead of him pulling away as a teenager.

The biggest change has been with one of my children, one who had significant physical health issues that started at a young age (which have healed through all the same ways I healed!). As I was able to see things more clearly through my own human hurts and pains that needed to surface and heal, the Lord showed me my child’s “story” right from the time they were a baby. After the past few years of being led by the Lord to mother this child in a very tender way, even with challenging behavior’s, I was able to share their own story to them in a Holy Spirit moment. The tears running down my child’s cheeks showed me they felt seen in a way they had never felt seen before. Though just a child, their heart is hearing the love, support, and tender compassion I have for them AND Christ has for them. It changed us for good and has opened a door to deeper intimacy we have needed as mother and child.

Take Away # 2 - I am more convinced than ever in the power of retraining our souls and brains to surrender over to the Lord to receive healing love so that in turn we are able to give that authentic love to others in real, tangible healing ways.

This authentic healing positions each one of us to bring healing to this world, to further His Kingdom, one person at a time!

Blessings,

Brea