Godly living demands spiritual maturity--eliminating the static from your heart and obeying the voice of God. But how do we overcome our erratic feelings and save our valuable energy? How do we avoid the readily available, senseless, and harmful desires that so cleverly snare us into destruction? Thankfully, we have a fighting chance if we run after the faith we somehow wandered away from. In God's Vibes Matter: Reclaiming Your Spiritual Authority, author and life coach Juliana Page shows how to have a heart fully surrendered to the transformative power of God's Spirit. Juliana shares lessons about the everyday miracles that illuminate God's Spirit, and she shows how these lessons, along with insightful journal prompts, will inspire Spirit seekers to look deeper into their own stories, empowering them to prosper through Spirit-led living. For both spiritual seekers and on-the-fence believers, the first step is to learn how to stop striving in their worldly searches and instead be guided by the one true source, Jesus Christ. This good fight of faith demands a different pursuit--a pursuit of righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness. And while it may be a fight that Christians are unaccustomed to, it can serve as the basis to connect with God and reveal his glory in the world. God's Vibes Matter Reclaiming Your Spiritual Authority By Juliana Page Balboa Press Copyright © 2017 Juliana Page All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-5043-7801-7 Contents Acknowledgments, xxiii, Introduction, xxv, Act One: The Veil, Chapter 1: Dress Up, 3, Chapter 2: Shockwaves, 12, Chapter 3: Broken Vessel, 24, Chapter 4: Responsibility, 32, Act Two: The Wilderness, Chapter 5: False Security, 45, Chapter 6: Works of the Flesh, 53, Chapter 7: Contro, 64, Chapter 8: Stop the Search, 75, Act Three: The Truth, It Is Written!, Chapter 9: Predestined for Adoption, 91, Chapter 10: Worth, 109, Chapter 11: Battle for Your Blessings, 125, Chapter 12: Love Walking, 146, Conclusion: It's Already Done, 156, CHAPTER 1 Dress Up "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." — Matthew 18:3, NIV ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE Most of you are probably familiar with William Shakespeare's line, "All the World's a Stage," suggesting that you and I are merely actors in a play called life. I remember reading this in junior high school and experiencing the philosophical entanglement germinate in my mind as questions came one after the other. If the world is a stage, what's the play about? Is there a theme? What roles am I supposed to play? Who is directing this thing? Deeper still, when I was bold enough to raise my hand and present these questions before the class, I was met with dodgy responses and statements like, "That's a great question. That depends on the meaning you give it." And even more frustrating was the question response in response to my question: "What do you think?" I think if I was secure in my thinking on the matter, I wouldn't have asked. So where does that leave us? With a poetic metaphor for life where everyone has the opportunity to give it whatever meaning they like. Utter chaos — now that's acting. But when did all of the dressing up pretense and acting start? GROOMING I often wondered whether the culture we are groomed into from our youth becomes the comfort we seek, or whether we create some sort of mixed way of life based on what we're exposed to. How can we really know what is best for us if we haven't seen or experienced it? Does any of that even matter until we've experienced some of the worst things for us? And are the worst things really the worst after all? The great life mysteries and paradoxes have always had a way of seducing my imagination and manipulating my inner peace. CHILDLIKE WONDER Growing up in a Midwest country town, I am grateful for the plethora of opportunities available to nurture my wonder and creative nature. My childlike faith was in adventure. Adventures were unlimited: playing hide and seek in a cornfield, teaching school lessons to inanimate objects in our tree house, building cozy nooks in mulch piles, collecting baskets full of buckeyes, and assisting my dad mowing the lawn by riding on a wagon behind him or shrieking in the background as he dropped smoke bombs into groundhog holes in the garden to eliminate those little critters. I used to be disappointed when it was dark, knowing that the outside exploits would soon cease. In those younger years, my hobbies were changing my outfit and dressing up at least three times a day, as well as collecting GUND bear stuffed animals to which I could tell stories. Aside from my creative spurts, I was trained to perform household chores, observe table manners, and meet parental expectations. I also had an inner boldness to test these boundaries and a determination to quickly do what was required to get onto the advent