I NEED YOU MORE

so I'm listening to the song "i need you more" song by Kim Walker of jesus culture. sitting at Starbucks listening to this song, and I got an image of someone soaking wet from the presence of God. someone that is dripping with the tangible liquid love of our MAKER. can you imagine carrying that with you everyday, every minute, every second...the liquid love of our CREATOR. what an awesome gift He has given us, His very presence. The fact that people whether they are a believer or not can recognize the carriers of our SAVIORS liquid love.

I pray that in my own life I can be a carrier of His liquid love, not the temporary I'm only gonna do it cause it benefits me. BUT the real, authentic, pure, no-strings attached LOVE that God has called ALL of us to extend to EVERYONE. God I thank you that there is no limit to your love, that there is freedom, grace, acceptance, guidance, truth and wholeness in your LOVE.

so with that being said

more than the air i breathe, more than the song i sing, more than anything...

I NEED YOU MORE

grow-up

So its been a while, and when I say a while I mean 9 months since I've posted something.

and now let me unload, upload, download...share whats been going on

I've been busy...getting organized, figuring out what I want for my life, hanging out, loving people, being myself.

BUSY...

I have always had a passion for art, and creating but I never really had the confidence to share what I did or even think that I could make a living out of it. But like I said before I've been busy getting organized and figuring out what I want for my life, and what I want is to be an artist, and make my living with it. So I have been painting and exploring and seeing where it takes me and allowing God to give me more vision for this passion that I have inside of me. Its been fun and scary all at the same time, sharing my art is like a exposing a part of myself that I keep hidden. 9 months of formulating something amazing, 9 months of allowing my insecurities to be dealt with, 9 months of exploring, and 9 months of saying yes to my passion.

Now on this side of the 9 months I have established my very on website MONELLISA and I opened up an etsy shop selling my prints and other artwork. and I'm EXCITED

I'm looking forward to more creativity, exploring, more yielding to God to allow me to go deeper with this passion...MORE

trusting in him...

i've been chewing on a particular verse, and its been amazingly-great! jesus!

...so here it is...

trust in the Lord with ALL your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in ALL your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.

proverbs 3:5-6

so God has completely wrecked my understanding of ALL...you see this small word holds such measure, such weight, such responsiblity...and im just gonna say it my ALL is hard...I have so many questions, so many thoughts, so many insecurities, so many doubts, so many things keeping me from really, fully, wholehearterly surrendering the ALL and saying God i trust that you are going to make my path straight. God i trust that you know what is best, and i don't have to fully understand that to move, to wait, to trust, to be who you have called me to be.

so yea, God i thank you for that revelation; that i can breathe with a freedom in knowing as im leaning on you; you are allowing my path to align to what you call straight.

something new...

yesterday i decided to mess around on the keyboard for a little bit, and this is what came of it...ENJOY!

we prepare the way...

so the past couple of weeks have been pretty hectic, just adjusting to working early in the morning and trying not to stay up too late, but God has been amazing...I have been really praying about where the Lord wants me to go this summer as far as missions, and it was down to two locations. Ghana and Turkey, both very special and i know i could be used on either trip...but i didn't just want to pick one randomly. so i prayed and asked and prayed and asked. after attending the turkey interest meeting i really felt like the Lord put a song on my heart for the trip. "We prepare the way" by Rick Pino (such an amazing song). but this wasn't my deciding factor, the trip to Turkey is geared towards worship and intersession something that I really want to go deeper in. And the very fact of all of this was Turkey scared me the most, having to be stretched in an area that is very intimate to me. So with that I was like ok God, lets do this, lets jump, let me take that step and trust you with this. Lets Go! And there you have it, I'm going to Turkey, June 10 - 21. I know that the Lord is going to do tremendous things with the team and with the people we come in contact with.

below is my sponser letter...I would love it if you could just keep me in your prayers, and if you would like to contribute to my funds that would be awesome!

As most of you know I had the opportunity to go to South Africa last summer and minister to the young people in the town of Coffee Bay. This was my first experience being out of the country and I loved it! Caring for the little ones in the orphanage and having meaningful discussion about the Lord with the older ones it was simply amazing.

This year I have the same desire, just in a different region of the world. My heart has led me to be a part of our church’s mission team to Turkey. Our team is scheduled to be in Antalya, Turkey

June 10 – 21 and we will be doing worship and intercession, and youth ministry. I can’t even describe fully how excited about what God is going to do with our team and for myself being stretched in the area of worship.

Our team will be busy for the next several months learning, praying and preparing for Turkey. I would like to invite you to also be a part of our team. We need people who will pray for us as we prepare and while we are on the field. We also need people who can partner with me financially. The trips estimated cost is $2900.

Would you please continue to pray about being a part of my support team? All financial contributions are tax-deductible. Checks should be made payable to New Life Ministries International and the envelope (not the check) should be clearly designated with both the trip name and my name. You may include the country/trip name on the memo line of your check but please do not include my name. If the check is designated with my name, according to IRS regulations, you will not be able to use it as a tax deduction. Also, you may make an online contribution through our website at http://newlife.cc/. Because we have to meet deadlines for airfare deposits and other arrangements, I need to have adequate financial support raised as soon as possible.

And if you are interested in being part of my personal prayer support team, please email me at luv2shoot@gmail.com or give me a call at 757-816-3016. We plan to keep our prayer team regularly updated with prayer requests and praise reports. Thank you for praying about being part of our team in any way possible!

With lots of love

Isabel Monell

*pictures are from my trip to south africa last summer*

1,2,3 JUMP...

1, 2, 3 JUMP...1, 2, 3 READY SET...here i come, I jump into you...(adam cates)


So last week at girls group one of the leaders spoke about prophecy and what that looked like, and how God can use it in many different forms. And once the discussion was finished we had a time to active what we talked about and learned. For me this wasn't too hard, but then again its something that I always tend to over analyze and just really question if its my own thoughts or JESUS.

We paired off and just started praying for our partners. I didn't really get anything revelational, at least not in my opinion but I shared. Then my partner (Rachel) began to share what she felt like the Lord was showing her for me.

"I just hear the word PASSIONATE, and not the superficial passionate that you see from the outside, but a pure PASSION from within."

I thought cool, I feel like I'm at that point with the Lord...not wanting to play games...just wanting his heart.

She proceeded...

"Its night and the stars are out, and you are walking. Walking towards this cliff, and then...you jump...I don't really know what you are jumping into, but you jump"

I was like oh great suicide...ya! not really...but REALLY! God, I'm jumping off a cliff? What does that mean? Where are we going with this? Is there any significance or what? I didn't really think much of what my Rachel told me when i left girls group that night, but that Lord has a funny way of bringing things back. But God.

So I'm reading this book on desperate women of the bible, and it just so happen the same week Rachel shared this image of me jumping off a cliff, i get to the chapter of a women who was so desperate it was like she was jumping off a cliff...yea i know God you are funny! This gave new insight to what Rachel told me, and made me really just examine what she said again. Yes i am passionate about the Lord, and I am passionate about the things he is doing in and through me, but am I willing to trust him and JUMP? am i willing to say "I'm ready to jump...i trust you JESUS!" I think so, I don't want to be at the edge of the cliff wondering if it will hurt to jump. At the edge waiting for something to come and carry me to the other side. That's not what he wants either, he wants everything, all of me...the willingness to say I'm ready and i don't care what is at the bottom.


here are some lines from the book I'm reading:
Desperate living requires risk, surrender, yielding all that you have in hopes that it will somehow be good enough. It is jumping off a cliff, hoping you will land on something soft, something that doesn't break you completely. Something that does not swallow you alive. But if it does, well, it does.

...a woman who was jumping off a cliff, clinging to the simple and frail hope that she might land on something soft-if she landed at all.

He was about to jump off a cliff, knowing nothing was going to break his fall. Nothing, this is, but the object of his devotion, of his sacrifice. Of his love.

she is my true love...

I was listening to a song by Laura Woodley the other day and all I really want to say is WOW! It’s a song about how we see our relationship with the Lord. But in the midst of the junk and dirt He sees beauty; He wants us, He chooses us, His beautiful brides

You saw me broken
You saw me battered

You saw me filthy

You saw me shattered

You saw me wicked

You saw me lying

You saw me failing

You saw me trying

You saw me angry

You saw me jealous

You saw me prideful

You saw me selfish

You saw me wonder

You saw me lustful

You saw me striving

Worshipping idols

I want her

I love her

She’s the one for me

I choose her

I know her
She is my true love
Bring her to me

Put a ring on her finger

Clothe her in my righteousness

Shine my light all around her

Place a crown upon her head

Keep her tears in a bottle

See her name upon my hands

When she says: I don’t deserve it

Tell her: I took the nails instead

I took the nails instead

After hearing the song, I decided to create a painting! Around the outside of the canvas has lines from the beginning of the song, and in the center of the painting is God's response to how he see us..."I want her..." And the awesome thing is that after printing it out the words on the paper it resembled a dress; which lead me to make the center of the painting a dress. A beautiful dress, set apart for His beautiful bride.

your love came in...

so this is a song that God gave me while I was on vacation
this past christmas. its one of my favorites, and really just shows me how much
God desires to restore and to love.

I was lost I could not see,
the darkness covered me.
my heart was cold i felt so alone.

but your love came in and filled me up
when your love comes in i'm built up

i once was broken, but now there's you,
and youre picking me up.
all my hopes, joys and dreams,
they are now redeemed.

but your love came in and filled me up
when your love comes in i'm being built up

always doubting left and right,
but now you're by my side, you're by my side.
no longer bound by the lies there's truth in your eyes,
and thats where i want to be.

when your love crept in,
and you tore me apart,
restoring my heart.

cause your love came in and filled me up
when your love comes in im being built up.

now my joy is complete,
cause you're livin in me,
deep, deep, deep within.

Spring is coming...

This past Friday evening I went to my churches women of radiance banquet. To be honest I went because I was asked if I would be interested in displaying some of my artwork. And so I saw this as opportunity for me to get people to see what I have done, and see the talents of other women. But of course God just didn't want that to be my only reason. I mean that would be too simple, come to a banquet display my work, eat some amazing dessert and listen to some special women share. Too simple for God.

So let me just start by saying that the theme for the night was seasons, the different seasons we encounter with our walk with the Lord. My sister and I were looking over the different seasons and what they generally bring into our lives. And of course when I read winter, I was like "Yea, that’s def. where I'm at right now...a season of reflection" and I also made the comment, "I can't wait for spring, a season of impartation" and I just left it alone. The evening started with a light hearted skit about WOMAN. Then we had time to fellowship and share with the women at our table. This was great. This lasted for about 20 minutes, and was then transitioned into the sharing of the different seasons. This is where God rocked me.

Spring was the first season to be shared; the lady got up and started talking. She started by giving the definition of spring (new, growth, to come up, fresh)...all things a person would naturally associate with spring. She then proceeded to share about her life during this season, and then gave three different people who are processing spring (the leftover, the wallflower, and the broken one). At that very moment I just was like wow! God what is happening, my emotions started to well up and I could feel a bawl inside of me that needed to spring forth. But because I didn't want people looking at me I held it in. At the same time trying to process where the emotions were coming from. At the close of this ladies testimony she shared a line from a song that encouraged the spring season of her life "wallflower come dance with me, leftover you’re just what I need, broken one you will be my queen" again the tears wanted to gush from my eyes, but I held it in.

As I started to process my emotions, I was like God this must just be me being emotional. The next season to share was summer, but I didn’t have the same emotional high as I did for spring. And I didn’t really think anything of it. They then transitioned into a worship dance done to the song “every season” by Nicole Nordeman. The song went through the different seasons, and it was just beautiful. Then the same emotions I had encountered during the sharing of the season of spring happened again. “and everything that’s new, has bravely surfaced teaching us to breathe what was frozen through, is newly purposed turning all things green, so it is with you and how you make me new.” These lines sparked that emotional overflow of tears. And again I was just like God where is this coming from why tonight, why here, why? But again I refrained from crying and letting that emotion get the best of me.

Autumn and winter spoke and I was fine, nothing sparked me. Nothing really at that point shook me like spring. So I was just like ok, what is it about spring, what do you want me to know. And on the car ride home I asked God what he wanted me to know, what he was doing in me, why I was so overly captivated by the season of spring. And he responded with, “spring is coming” That was all I needed to hear, once that happened I had such a peace. And I was like,”ok God.” Spring is coming…don’t know what it looks like, but I think I’m ready.

One day at a time...

One day at a time...this is a phrase that I have heard an enormous amount just within the past couple of weeks, and its quite annoying. God knows I'm a planner and that I love to look so far in advance and dream. But that's not what he wants right now, "Isabel can we look at today, I want to show you something." and my response is always "God really, can we just think and dream about how great my life is going to be in 6 months, 5 years...can we just sit and think about all the gifts you are going to cultivate in my life for the future." And God is like, "that's nice; we could, but there are things here, today that I need you to be aware of for your future, things today that will enable your future." So God has really just opened my eyes to the fact that I can't be complacent with today, that I have to be actively engaging in the today's. That he has established specific things for me to know and see every single day. Daily surrendering, daily uprooting, daily pouring in, daily revelation. And I can't receive all of that if my mind is focused on the things I could be in 6 months. This was like God was saying wake up. Wake up and live, today! SO...

God I pray that you would open my eyes to the things you have established for me today. That i wouldn't be so distracted by the tomorrows, but that there would be a peace in knowing you are working daily in me to pull out my future.

Philippians 4:6 & 7
do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.