Compass~ Discipling Community Members~ Christine Hewitt co-authored

But he who trust in, relies on, and confidently leans on the Lord shall be compassed about with mercy and loving kindness, Psalm 32:10 AMPC

Compassed represents motivation and inspiration. As a symbol, the compass signifies bringing motivation to a person feeling lost! It gives a sense of hope and inspires you to follow your heart and the rightful path. So, TRUST and reliance on the Lord gives hope, motivation, and inspiration to continue that rightful path no matter the obstacles. Trust God to do the impossible for you. During the deep transformational work as we have partnered with Holy Spirit, He beckons us to this relationship of trust. We learn that many lies have created strongholds in our minds, and their roots are controlled by our need to avoid rejection. Rejections creates this distorted lens by which we view relationships. Frankly, while we are living this ‘distorted lens life’ before the Holy Spirit does His deep below the surface work in our lives, we only trust in ourselves. But He who is faithful, comes and we partner with Him and He begins the work as the gardener of our souls. As we are engaged in the work with Him, the fruit begins to immediately flourish. Many come to peek at the work, but an attitude prevails which prevents them from making the work personal. As they look inward, they are repulsed by what they see in themselves and so they opt for sitting in the judgement seat judging others. That seat allows for self-righteousness which is much less painful than the work of the Gardener.

One of the biggest hindrances to the work is the very culture of the present-day church. We have become expert pew sitters, and in our small groups, the topic of conversation is either about the failures of someone else, or the material in front of us. We have lost the very heart and nature for which we were created, which is relationship. We rather talk about someone, which then gives us this superior religious spirit that says I have the right to judge someone else’s life and measure it against my own self-righteousness and conclude I’m not doing so bad! We have now for generations in the church not been in relational communities where we live transparently before each other and before the Lord. We were created to be relational just as the Trinity is relational. On our spiritual journey Holy Spirit makes it clear there are things in this journey that we can only get from being in relationship with others. I have watched the women who the Lord has called into this relational discipleship journey with me, and they begin to navigate the deep waters with judgement of me and my transparency first, falling into the familiar ways of operating. Then, they see freedom come and they seek the Holy Spirit for their own journey of walking in transparency. Even in that we all throw up those walls of defense, comfort, and refuge, only to discover that there is no freedom there and worse yet there is only more bondage. Unless you have a current testimony like daily, you are not walking this journey yet. Its ok, you will get there, there is emotional healing and wholeness coming to you in greater measure, but it is always accompanied by pain. Emotional maturity is synonymous with spiritual maturity, as it requires a great trust and total reliance on Holy Spirit. In that place of total trust and reliance on Holy Spirit to do the deep emotional work in you, you find your compass and it always points to the true north.