"THE SPIRIT-LED HEART..." by Suzanne Eller

"The Spirit-Led Heart - Living a Life of Love and Faith without Borders"

by

Suzanne (Suzie) Eller

It was more than an unexpected, welcomed surprise when I received my complimentary copy from Bethany House of "The Spirit-Led Heart - Living a Life of Love and Faith without Borders" by Suzanne (Suzie) Eller, who definitely was Spirit-Led as she wrote this heart changing book. Suzie, once again, captures your heart, as she ignites your faith in a fresh awareness of the work of the Holy Spirit in you and challenges you to be a Spirit-filled person - without borders, through her 'gifted' teaching, truths and promises from God's Word with practical steps in her well-organized way. I enjoyed "unpacking" and unwrapping this gift, chapter after chapter of promises and teachings of Jesus and the early church, as Suzie shows us and walks us through the gift of His presence available inside each of us who've received Jesus. The true gift of this book for me, is reawakening His Spirit or reopening my eyes to all the Holy Spirit is ... and my heart so that I am Spirit-led. 

Most definitely, this is my favorite kind of book with the content I like best, including a Study Guide right in the back of the book following the Epilogue. Ten solid chapters that include the same format pattern of well-organized *sections as Suzie shares her heart about a Spirit-Led heart: beginning with a quote by a famous person/author that capsulizes the theme or gets you thinking, a personal devotional introduction, *The Early Church (relating them to us), *Your Promise, *Your Invitation (both with personal reminders from personal experiences to encourage and apply to our lives), question(s) with further expansion of her teaching points, summing up with *Spirit-Led ... without borders, then ending with a special box emphasizing: *The Word, *Your Spirit-Led Promise, *Your Spirit-Led Invitation, and a *Prayer (always my favorite part). 

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In each chapter Suzie focuses us on our Spirit-Led hearts being: 1) Confident, 2) Empowered, 3) Defined by Truth, 4) Finds Direction, 5) Bold, 6) Advocated and Comforted, 7) Counseled, 8) Finds Discernment and Wisdom, 9) Marked by Conviction and 10) Gifted.  Suzie has the gift to inspire as she gives good, practical instruction with sound Biblical teaching of God's Word combined with keeping her writing personal, vulnerable, transparent yet powerful. Each chapter's Spirit-Led ... (fill in any of the 1-10 above) ...without borders, is the section that really personalized her point and God spoke more clearly to my heart. 

I was going to mention that my favorite chapter was Chapter 6  "We are Worth Fighting For" ... but that's because of where I am in my personal life, yet I'm sure that others would be my favorite in other seasons of my life. Over and over, I flip often to the different charts or tables that Suzie uses, like in Chapter 3 (pages 64 and 65) but the best one, is in the Study Guide, on page 189, "God's Truth Replaces Lies" {boy, do I need to do this frequently}. You can see this or get a copy at Suzie's blog plus some other wonderful freebies including the "Manifesto" and sample of chapters 1 & 2.

As I continued reading through "The Spirit-Led Heart", I sensed a renewed stirring of the Holy Spirit helping me to grasp that I am equipped with the power to live out my faith without borders and return to a Spirit filled life of love, or for me, love of life with my heart transformed by all that Suzie shares from God's Word, through the early church to me, the reader guided by His Spirit. 

I highly recommend this book and its teacher/author for individuals as well as small group church studies. I know that I will return to read this again and again, at a slower pace to reignite all Suzie Eller ties together about a Spirit-Led heart. I would love to lead a study of this book too since it is all given in the book copy. I have enjoyed other books by Suzie Eller dealing with the heart: "Unburdened" and "Mended", but this one stands out as I seek to be filled and refilled by His Holy Spirit, a recurring theme for me since last fall and so I invite you to read this as I invite the Holy Spirit to "Come with Me", once again ... and rekindle my Spirit, my belief of 3 in 1, Father, Spirit and Son, Jesus Christ. I need all 3(as 1) to help me live my faith better, without borders. 

"I'm worth fighting for. Just saying those words breaks something in me, Father. ... That one is worth fighting for Lord. I am not big enough to change the world on my own, but I can do my part. ...  " [parts of the Prayer for Chapter 6, page 114, "The Spirit-Led Heart"by S. Eller]

Spirit-Led Promise #1 [image credit:S.Eller]

Disclosure: I received this book free from Bethany House, the publisher in return for an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTCs 16 CFR, Part 255

[This book was published on May 1st but I did not receive a copy til May 16th so sorry for not getting this review out earlier. I purposely chose today's date to honor my mother on her birthday as her spirit resides with His eternally. I love the artwork on the cover of Suzie's book and throughout in black and white, and other images I've seen, which remind me of the artwork my mother would do.]

"PRAYING for an UNBELIEVER"

It's been far too long since I shared a post (call it "blogger-phobia") and even longer since I have taken a "Walk On Weds." unless you count the "7 Mile Miracle" as a "walk" ...

(maybe it's because it looks like this again)

And this morning, I really needed a reminder from God ... so by 7 am He sent me out yet again with 2 of my fur babies and I gazed out the back and saw this ... 1 all alone ... (not usual because most often there are 6 to the group that I feed a little later in the day) and this spoke volumes to my heart and soul ... how I am not alone, how He cares even for one, "yes, that one", how He provides, how He protects ... and how I better get boots and clothes on and put some feed out for ...

"can you spot her?"

(... shortly the other 5 joined her, then around noon another blessing ... you know the saying of spotting your first "robin" being a sign of spring, well, it is up here in frigid, cold MN but I spotted a entire flock of over 13 robins, pecking seed on a tree, fluttering and flying up and down, and even in the snow and mud in the front ... so glorious with their orange colored bellies, yet another spring reminder and delight) 

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Back to the rest of my morning

...built around caring for 

my precious "Lucky" furbaby

with 3 meds

none of

which

she will readily take

and keeping my eyes and ears

watching that she's ok, not in pain

not messing with her stitches

along her right side mammary chain

really being a fighter and so good...

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As I had already finished my You Version plans of reading the Bible and had not yet gone to First 5, I opened my email and began sorting through when my eyes caught site of this (the title of this blog post "Praying for an unbeliever") in the subject line of Daily Hope with Pastor Rick Warren ... so I clicked over to the podcast and listened, knowing that I should have shared this much earlier today on here, so "whosoever ..." might also catch this broadcast for today - although the entire series is worth listening to ... perhaps you are like me and need to spend extra time in heavy duty prayer for a loved one that desperately needs Jesus, so I invite you to listen ... and join "40 days of Prayer", you can even download message outlines or purchase the series, and also other excellent resources (but right now you can listen to the messages for free and receive his devotionals in your email like I do). Most important, let's PRAY:

"... Here is a sample prayer for unbelieving friends: “Lord, I know there are people who don’t have a relationship with you. Perhaps they know about you; they have heard your name. They just don’t know you as their personal Savior. I pray that you would give them the courage to open their heart and mind and life to you. Lord, help them with their unbelief. May they learn to trust you and love you. Use me as a bridge to their belief. Keep me faithful in prayer.” " Pastor Rick Warren, devotional 4/18/18

Rick Warren’s study “Experience God’s Power Through Prayer,” available here[JW1] .

I encourage you to visit Daily Hope!' (And thank you for praying!!!)
I do BELIEVE in the power of prayer