PauloVieira

dare to be…

paulovieira — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:28:12 +0000

One of the many questions I’ve asked is how do I engage in prayer when I don’t even know what it is in the first place? Why can prayer be so boring at moments? and honestly I don’t have the answer to all these questions but one thing that I’ve tried to do is firstly find what it means to pray in my life and how I can slowly develop my relationship with Holy Spirit so that I can start taking small steps into this thing called prayer. If you’ve grown up in a church environment you’ve probably heart a ton of times that prayer is powerfull and it can change lives, but how?

Many of the jewish people used to relate prayer with their shabbath, so in different aspects and moments in the Bible people looked at prayer/worship as a time to rest in God, to come before Him and rest your soul and place who you are before this God that is above all things; but somewhere along our walk we’ve turned this concept into a different perspective to the point where prayer becomes perseverance, pressing through and it turns from being rest into a burden. Probably the first and deepest way someone can be personally be changed by prayer is through understanding how to rest, to rest many times means to trust, to trust that there is someone in control and i come before God to rest my soul in Him, it is not a burden, it is not a stressfull activity that is demanded from a christian-like life, but a place to risk to trust or should I say to simply come and rest. Resting brings force peace, confidence in Who is guiding the way producing faith. Faith is conviction of God’s Power and love and through Him the things that are not come to be, but when we take hold of this faith it produces hope inside of us. Hope that we will be received by Him and freedom that we’re accepted no matter how messed up we are. Prayer is a starting match fire for a chain of transformations, but we have to understand what it means to us.

I wanna propose a small idea. Let’s call it “5 seconds of open heaven”. Under your breath for the next 3 days, or on your mind, whenever you see a situation around you or a friend, or a person who you don’t know just release whatever you think a prayer is: “JC bless that guy over there…”, “Jesus, help that girl with her driving…”,”Jesus, look at that guy over there..”, “Holy Spirit, help my dad with his job..”.. No long or eloquent prayers, just take 5 seconds, it can be in the back of your thought.

With time you’ll start noticing that your mind and soul will become aware of what’s around you and you’ll uncounsciously engage in prayer for things around you. 5 seconds at a time, and when you least expect, you’re at a place where you are able to exercise some rest and trust in God’s Love for the world around you and inside of you. Prayer is inward but outward as well. Transformation doesn’t start at a physical place but inside a person’s spirit.

A movement can only become reality with a risk…
just dare to be available to what God has for you!
Try it out!

what do you say?

“Prayer itself is an art which only Holy Spirit can teach us. Pray for prayer. Pray until you can really pray.” -C.H. Spurgeon

from Love to repentance…

paulovieira — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:51:18 +0000

It has been a long time ever since I wrote. A lot has happened in my life causing me to rethink and go back to so many points in my walk that at moments I see myself totally different. I have been involved and serving a ministry that preaches repentance and organizes solemn assemblies throughout the nation and it has been such a thrilling experience but at the same time it is followed by a sudden rush of frustratino as to “why is it that on the next day everything is back in the same place?” It almost appears as if nothing has happened, as if we haven’t cried out for half a day for repentance and God to come and turn back to us. We have pin-point effects of something that in our hearts we desired to be floods of transformations. But then I’m reminded of something…

“Forgiveness precedes repentance” -Brennan Manning

We cry out for repentance before understanding that we’ve already been forgiven, instead of looking at a solemn assembly with the perspective of acknowledging who we are and repenting for what we’ve done we come as a quest to pursue something that has already been given to us. But if I look further back I see that forgiveness is a fruit of God’s love and inevitably we can only fully grasp what it means to be free when we engage in intimacy; So we will only experience a deep repentance once we have a touch of God’s intimacy in our lives that will open our hearts to see his forgiveness for what we have done. There will be times when we won’t have intimacy but through Grace we will feel His influence upon our hearts to be convinced that we are forgiven, to be freed through Jesus’ forgiveness, to see the cross and the furious intensity of God’s tender love. I just ask myself are we preaching the right message? How can I bring repentance if I don’t make people see Love and intimacy and so forgiveness ? Aren’t we focusing on a goal without building foundations?

The best way I’ve found for intimacy is called prayer. Not just words but day-to-day prayer. Is a move of prayer to come after repentance or before? We won’t reach plenitude but we can walk into abundance in the Kingdom here on earth once we understand that we’ve been forgiven and I know, because that’s what has been happening to me, that once you start seeing that gracious pardon of God you are drawn into this deep desire for intimacy (prayer) and out of this you can experience what repentance truly is: a 180 degree change in attitudes, in life, in everything.

“In this we know love, that God loved us even when we’re still sinners…” He forgave us when we rejected him, He is Love and that is our greatest prize of all and the only source of true life that I’ve been able to find;

thank you…

paulovieira — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:09:00 +0000

I am the goal of your Love
I am the fruit of your Passion

Be the breath of my words
From an imperfect heart
imperfectly fallen

Eternally so gratefull
for I am loved
today I know…

breaking Grace…

paulovieira — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 01:24:00 +0000

Each day I come to a point of breaking where I realize that the answer to most of my questions reside in Your Grace; Your Love, itself, can only be received because of Your Grace, so I see more and more that this Grace is the door that makes me experience transformation.

Paul alway spoke about Grace(charis) as a divine influence upon my heart and it’s direct influence in my life, including gratitude. Gratitude is then an act of faith and not a hypocrite attitude, in the sense as to where when I express my gratitude in circumstances that have nothing to be grateful about, I am taking a step in faith and calling forth Your Kingdom upon that situation. The abundance and fullness of my life is a direct result of the grasp of my heart by Your spirit. If you don’t come then what’s it worth? So God, give me faith to receive your grace and let go of things that are be beyond my reach.

“
You’ve sealed me with Your Love
You’ve called me Son
Father of such Love, you found me
Hope has renewed a flame for you in me…
“

a misunderstood understanding…

paulovieira — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:22:00 +0000

Recently talking to a friend that has daily grown in my heart I’ve realized that there’s so much that I’ve been going through that can be overcomed if I’m willing to surrender my own desire for a knowledge that is meant to be unknown, to unconver seasons that are still hidden for my life; and understand that despite of it being awfully hard to write it down and express the foreign realms that my heart has been visiting in this journey called life there is a song that is echoed in each of our actions, atitudes, struggles and trials, if we just dare to step out and live it out loud then we ourselves would be able to hear the melodies that God has been singing through us;

During a season of apparent confusion where nothing seems to quite work out, where lights that before were leading signs become glimpses of a distant glory, where rivers of revelations turn drastically into deserts, one thing I’ve been asking for is understanding; Understanding that can be translated to whos, hows and whys; to questions that come to deviate my focus from everything around me and turn to me and my own personal universe; but for moments I’m reminded of 2 worlds that live in me and around me and drawing my attention once again to God, I find in His word a proverb and take it as an answer to my problems: “… the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding(pv.9.10b)”

Then I will find understanding, pursue it with all I have, acquire knowledge of You, oh God; but strangely enough the more knowledge I seek, the farther away I fathom myself, the more lost and uncomprehensible things become; maybe there’s something missing, maybe there’s more than to pursue simply the knowledge of the Holy One; I once again fall back into this season of confusion; perharps understanding has misunderstood my selfish purpose.

Oh God after spending so much time eroding from the lack of being with You, where can I find you? My Heart has lost its desire for understanding, but give me at least one answer; Surprisingly, at the point of breaking You come across me and I’m found by Your Grace once again, and by Your spirit whispering and piercing through me

[..] “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God. [...]” I co. 8:1

I am taken in your hands and feeling completely undone I cry out for something, for someone to hear me. God? I have thought I knew all this, but I’ve been oblivious to the one thing you’ve wanted from me: Agapé! All this time, i’ve stepped out of that flame of love and have pursued a way with my mind and failed to obtain undertanding;

But if you are Love, how can I love you if not through You? When I turn to Paul, he meant something else, deeper I think. The man who loves God “ginōskō” by God. Ginosko means to be known, but it means more it means to be assured, to be able to speak to, to feel and to obtain understanding; How to feel you? How to speak to you? Why have I not understanding of this season? My hows and whys find an answer to the “who” I had lost out of my sight…

I am made to love You. I am in debt of Love. Let all my questions find the one response that meets them all: Your Love. I have learned to know nothing, I have lost all my knowledge, of my personal kingdom and my self-centered revelation, to love You, humbly and humanly, with all my selfish attempts to become better than me, with all my unconcious atitudes that cancel my ability to receive your Grace to my heart, with all that, I’m here God. I just want to love you; not wanting to obtain understanding, or answers, because they would all just come back to You;

they would all just come back to You…

I haven’t given up God..

kisses
– Your son

echoes of majesty…

paulovieira — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 02:08:00 +0000

Sometimes I feel as if Heaven echoes back what it hears from Earth.

“God! I need you”
-”Paulo, I need you”

“God, where are you? “
-Paulo, where are you? “

“Why have you forsaken me?”
-”Why have you forsaken me? “

“God, above everything I give you my heart”
-”Paulo, above everything I gave you my life; now my heart is all yours”

“Come!”
-”Please come”

“God? I love you”
-

You are…

paulovieira — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 02:03:00 +0000

You are, You are
The reason to believe
that one day, what a beautiful day,
this nation will be changed.

You are, You are
The everlasting light
The holy man from Israel
My sweet love

How can I try to walk
neglecting your overwhelming love
If even before I could understand
You came and surrendered yourself for me

Come and be that consuming fire
The seal of my heart
That flame that comes and burns
in the deepest places of who I am.

“un”Glory experience

paulovieira — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 03:40:00 +0000

After spending a month away from You and your word, I’ve discovered many things about me and who I truly am. A man without God or any feeling that connects him with something above becomes like a survivor in a world that has lost it’s purpose, where every day comes and goes with no light or colors. We become dominated by the routine and focused only in our personal desires.

I hope and believe that never again will I do such an experience. If Your desire is to turn my life into an experience of Glory then I have come to see these past times as the times of vases of dishonor and chains; but without a shadow of doubt I have come to understand a little bit more the desperation of my generation, the cry that Jesus had in him when he felt forsaken and abandoned; so many that feel as if they’re left to fate without perceiving the reality and Royalty of Your Love, so pure yet intense.

We can’t understand your love, because our world has been transformed by the lack of it…Sin is capable of deforming our essence and taking away the only pleasure that is truly capable of satisfying, to be drawn closer to You.

It has been more than 6 months since my heart has felt what it means to be Home; Ever since I have stepped the land of my nation I have faced temptations and striving that are taking place so deep in my soul. Free me! When will you come? my Love, my Rock, when will you come? The rains of early spring announce a new season, when will your waters come over my heart? Start this legacy that you’ve promised me; start this revolution of love…

for a future generation…

paulovieira — Sat, 09 May 2009 05:44:00 +0000

“Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry for help come to you.
Do not hide your face from me when I am in distress. Turn your ear to me; when I call, answer me quickly.

For my days vanish like smoke;my bones burn like glowing embers.
My heart is blighted and withered like grass; I forget to eat my food.
Because of my loud groaning I am reduced to skin and bones.
I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins.
I lie awake; I have become like a bird alone on a roof.

All day long my enemies taunt me; those who rail against me use my name as a curse.
For I eat ashes as my food and mingle my drink with tears
because of your great wrath, for you have taken me up and thrown me aside.
My days are like the evening shadow; I wither away like grass. ” Psalm 102:1-12

The hardest challenge that one can face is not the lack of money or any other needs, believe me I’ve been going through a whole set of things that I’ve been lacking and needs that aren’t been met but when I look at all of them there’s nothing that hurts my heart more than God’s absence; or my inability to feel Him; I cry out for just one touch, one glimpse, one answer, hear my cry Yahweh! but all I see is darkness, and all the circumstances in my life point the other way; I try to find an answer but nothing fits and I cry why? I try to reach for a Hope that today is lost in my heart believing that maybe soon it’ll stand renewed; but I desperately need him to look to me, don’f forsake me holy spirit; You’ve promised you never would but why do I feel like I am being?

When I look ahead I can’t see anything, when I try to breathe in some air I choke, when I try to walk I find myself falling into the unknown; what words can describe the sensation of feeling alone; I look at the psalms and I find so many that may have gone through times like these, and none of them understood why… I have been seeking a reaction to all this hell, my knees tremble, my voice fades away, my vision blurs, and my spirit dies at each second literally but in the middle of all this I find a prayer of an afflicted man. When he is faint and pours out his lament before His God and beyond my knowledge with whatever I can find in me to call faith I try to believe what my voice barely conceives…

“
He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea.
Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the LORD :

“The LORD looked down from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he viewed the earth,
to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death.” Psalm 102:17-20

God, it has been written for me; I am that future generation, I had not yet been created and it says that you heard my groans; then if this is true I claim it to happen in my life so that I can write this to a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise You; Don’t let these be words in a book… hear me Yahweh…

Let me not lose them…

paulovieira — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:09:00 +0000

“Find my hidden diamonds…” . That’s the word I heard, the covenant that was blown over my life. To find diamonds hidden inside each look, each heart, each wounded soul, there’s a revelation capable of changing the world of that person. But at the same time I find myself afflicted by a sudden loss of hope, by a strange routine. Why are you so anxious my soul? What has taken away your flame ?

What worth is there in taking steps that go beyond my reach? To move faster than Your spirit in me? I don’t want this; Make me move at the rhythm of your heart beat, lead this dance. Every morning when I wake up and take a breath of life, a new revelation is born of your endless Mercy. A hope that you might receive the Glory that you deserve today, and that Christ might so be revealed as the Hope of such Glory.

Let me not lose diamonds that have already been found; let me understand that one step with you is better than one step for you. I want to walk with You, my holy desire; and not simply find my life lost in a routine of conceiving ideas and doing things for some god.

One step at a time, here I am…