shayarthur

how do you know God more? The same way you get to know those you love more. Familiarity can be comforting as life changes so quickly and the security of the familiarity seems like safety. It can also be a rut to growth. There are aspects of familiarity that are detrimental to our growing. The assumptions we make as a result of thinking we know God can be a slippery slope to complacency. The same way in marriage, and in friendship, and with our families. As you know, you are changing as you follow Christ. You’re taking on more of Him and letting go of more of yourself. With this we can’t afford to grow familiar with Him and/or with those around us. There is the safety that closeness brings and it’s a gift but the other side of that we forget to keep getting to know and growing in love especially with Him and those closest to us. How do you God more? Or people you love more? Don’t assume you already know things. Pursue, pursue, pursue!! Ask great questions. Listen even more. Seek to spend time with them. He isn’t going to conform to your familiarity with Him. He will always seek to be known and He will always beckon you to come away with Him. We will be in eternity still getting to know Him. 😮 He is His bigger than your familiarity and He is still worthy of pursuit.

What would life look like if we actually saw like the Father? I guarantee you it would look different than your life looks now. I was reminded as I walked through a favela that though many people are unseen because we often choose not to see them… God always sees them. God doesn’t miss one person. Christ made a way that we found have eyes like that for people around us. It reminded me of a time that I was so hard hearted but it didn’t look like it on the outside because I knew how to play the part of being a Christian. I was driving through Atlanta and a homeless person asked me for money and I said I had no cash and they responded with it’s ok I have Cash App. I was confused and I drive off quickly. It was after that God spoke to me that I had a hard heart towards people. “Shay, you can always gage your hearts softness by your quickness to love or in this case your quickness to drive off”. I walked these streets watching my team (family now…) SEE THESE PEOPLE LIKE THE FATHER. Our lives would look different if we really loved like Him. I’m still letting it come close and expose the things that need to be exposed. Help me to see like you do Father. You’re not quick to drive off. You’re quick to love and that love looks like something. Help me.
Family time with this fam blessed me profoundly. Thankful for the added people in the picture here because we couldn’t have done it without them interceding for us from home! 😭😭

I found myself trekking through memory lane as I pack up to go to a new country! I was hit with so many feels and a deep remembrance of all the places I had been to. I recall packing for all these places with such zeal and hunger for what God was about to do in these places in and through me. I haven’t lost that feeling as I pack for the next place. It’s funny how we think as we get older some things change but my zeal and hunger for God in the Nations hasn’t changed. It has been pruned and sharpened through looking at Him. I’d even say that my heart feels softer now than the girl I see in these pictures. I’m eager to see what’s to come with my time in Brazil 🇧🇷 the anthem still remains in my life “May the lamb receive the reward of His suffering”

What if significance isn’t what we have made it to be? I used to think if my life was significant it meant I had to have some huge following and many things checked off a Christian resume. I actually have come to realize that is a scam of sorts. It’s a never ending high producing, hyped up road that leads to exhaustion. I believe that the most significant thing I can do is crack my heart open and be known by those who love me. That leads to long lasting fruit. It’s sobering when I read the Bible and see how they stewarded being known by each other. I would rather be super uncomfortably known by my closest friends that love me in all parts of life than superficially significant in the eyes of the crowd that will never know the depths of the cost of the walk. I urge you to place more value in being known than to strive for carnal significance.

when you feel the most “dead” you are the most alive in me. Don’t get it twisted, friends. Success and fruit aren’t the same things. You can be successful and still not beat Godly fruit. Fruit comes from Intimacy. This place of feeling dead is drawing you into intimacy and that will bring about fruit. Often we are simply the seed in the ground that will die to bring forth fruit. Some days we are striking the rock with zeal and some days we feel like the rock that’s being struck. The potter is trustworthy. His hands tend to us with care and tenderness. To those who feel “dead”, remember you look the most like Him. The Kingdom looks like dependency. You are alive in Him. Keep going! Look at Him!

I could write a book for this caption. 😜 wait I already wrote a book!
Altars are places of sacrifice, celebration, and remembrance. It’s a heart posture and can be found in the hearts of people and in locations of those building together. This book is an Ebenezer stone of sorts for me. These are stories that God wrote and we just lived out. I can’t take credit for His stories but I can simply try to write them down for us all to feast on … so here is a meal for you to only want to create your own Altars.
Huge thanks to those of us who lived these, and , and Hessel. And to those who helped me with this project, thank you. and . Thanks to every person who has ever stepped into or sowed into this beautiful Altar. The flame still is burning!

this is a picture of our Bishkek home most nights. My favorite times have been where we sat and listened to their stories of becoming brothers and sister in our family and then getting to pour into them all! Every one of their stories could be a book that would have us all being shook in tears. The Good news is still going out and transforming people all over the Earth. We need the reminders because we get caught up in our own stories in America far too often and forget the global church. Take heart my friends, He is doing what He says will! ❤️‍🔥

Kyrgyzstan is looking so good on us some of us had to close our eyes.

Hunger isn’t going to grow when you feel satisfied but rather when you feel empty. I wish I knew this earlier in my walk with Christ. 🗣️

Kazakhstan Mountains with some of the greatest people! ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

trekking Almaty, Kazakhstan and taking ground in the spirit and the natural for His name sake!! Being in such places grants me fresh fuel and a much needed sober perspective of the beautiful cost of following Christ. Prayer walking and planting Kingdom stakes in the ground believing for many laborers to come forth for all the great harvest that’s here in Central Asia. He is worthy! Why do we keep going? Why do we keep laying it all down over and over? Swipe to read one of my fave quotes from “unto death” by Dalton Thomas.

CENTRAL ASIA • EEEEK!!! I’m heading back to Central Asia for a month. When we left Uzbekistan last November there was this deep invitation to “adopt” a region in our hearts. This is a dream being fulfilled for me as when I was a young girl I felt that God spoke to me that I would be in the “Stan” nations. 😭

This will be a time of ministry and discipleship. It will include a monumental event for WOMEN in Central Asia. More to come on this specific event in the coming weeks! If you feel led in any way to partner financially you can by the link in my bio!

Words cannot express the immense anticipation for all that God is up to in Central Asia!!! 🇰🇬 🇰🇿 🇺🇿

some views don’t need a caption they just need to be stared at.
📍 Oregon Coast

I turned 38 in May. At this point in life I can’t say I saw life looking like it does at the moment but I can say that it’s MORE than I ever could have dreamed. It’s all that I’ve needed and deeply longed for just didn’t have words for it. I’m leaning in and my fire is flickering with the anticipation of all that is ahead. Don’t hold on to your preferences to tightly because typically they are what’s limiting you to what He has ahead. Cheers to 38! 🥳

i never would have dreamed that i would be living 5 mins from these besties. there are floods of memories and deep history that have been built in many many years of walking with each other in all of the terrains of life. the girls in the second picture probably never saw anything that we are currently in or doing fully. at our best we only saw glimpses of what is “now”. i know that i sure didn’t see it all but i’m without words on how grateful i am that we are here. i also can’t even begin to imagine what life will look like when we will look back from the future. (although there are some things i can see in my spirit, i am sure that even those things will only be bread crumbs of what’s to come.) people keep asking me “why do you think God moved you to the PNW?” and as spiritual as my answers are the most satisfying and truest one is that i moved to be with family. 🥹 i don’t know what’s to come fully but I’m excited that it’s here with these people. ❤️‍🔥 first pic:2023 second pic: 2016

One meal a week isn’t enough for the whole week. Same with our walks with Him. We are being formed by our daily rhythms. Either way we are being formed either into Christ or not. What we do daily matters.

little did we know that what felt like such a HUGE risk in 2019 was going to lead to building such a bountiful and beautiful community of many people. 5 gals that were all living off a word from the Lord and not much in the bank account. We had hearts full of Him, a desire to love our city and do it alongside each other. All very different but yet the main thing in common, Jesus. It’s funny how we all can want community and yet still not lean into it. You can easily be close to people and yet still be distant in heart. I am thankful that we opted into being known and letting each other in. Don’t get me wrong. It’s hard work to even live with people and still be intentional with each one. You can let time go by with just a casual hello, how was your day? Or you can lean in and seek to go deeper by offering yourself to them. These gals know me in ways that others won’t ever. They have covered me and also lifted me up. We have seen each other walk the narrow road that brings life but typically comes with resistance and pruning. Many people can say they felt at home in our house and it’s because we were doing the hard work of making it an intentional home. The Lord built this HOME in us and through us. We can’t take credit for all the fruit we have seen but we can say that we yielded to the Potter. It’s not over. It’s just leveling up..!! These girls aren’t just friends. They are family. And I know that word gets tossed out a lot in church but don’t get it twisted. It takes hearts showing up and working through things and staying in to make family! I love my Haven House Family. I love these girls and have come to find “home” in their hearts and in their eyes. I’ve grown by the Jesus in them and they will see fruit from it as I press on! Girls- you will always be a piece of home for me. I love it when I hear you each come out of my heart in word or in mannerisms. I will miss our laughs, Saturday chats, our annual hangout 😂 our keeping each other on the straight path and most of all our late nights where we don’t make any sense but laugh a lot. Thanks for loving Him well and loving me well! Miss y’all already.

there is only one way that I’ve been able to navigate all the transition taking place in my heart and in the natural… and that’s to worship! We have worshipped in this house for over 4 years and lifted our hearts and sounds to Heaven and over our city. It hit me deeply last night that this was going to be the last time as roommates that we would behold Him together with other hungry ones as a home. I find myself able to celebrate and also sit in deep grief. These two can hold hands and still be anchored in Christ. It’s the joy of tension that’s causing me to throw myself down at His feet. It is the gift of nearness of my Father’s tender care for me. It’s the deep rooted friendships that are guiding me like a train track so I don’t get crazy. Words don’t scratch the surface of how much I will miss these times in my house and even more the people that I’ve lived life with here. Deep friends that have become Kingdom family. But for now I’ll sit in the tensions of my heart and just cry them out knowing they are better than words.

The secret place matter, my friends! I have been stirred up about this. I find myself deeply desiring to get lost in the secret place in a deeper way. It’s essential to build the secret place again in this hour. Not for the sake of revival or outpouring but for the sake of having personal oil and because you simply love Jesus and want to be with Him. I invite you to lean in my friends!! Stay low. Stay hungry. It’s simple! The secret place matters!

I went all the way back into the deep reservoir of pictures to pull on the history of all my “big” moves to realize they all felt big. They all felt risky. They all required faith and dependency. Everything can feel big because we are small in His BIG hands. When you realize your life isn’t your own you stop measuring and just keep following. It’s all going to feel bigger than you because He is bigger than you! Its growth. He is the Potter. I am the clay. He is the hand that holds me. When it’s Him, I am in! When it’s Him calling me on the waters, I am in! When it’s his stretching of me, I am in! It’s the gift of the stretch. The stretch of where I am to where He is taking me. Welcome to following Him. This is why it’s our joy to take off the false yokes and burdens around us and take up his! I know when things are bigger than me it’s an invitation to lean in on Him. He is the great Shepard. I’m a little lamb! Embrace the gift of the stretch. This is where the miracles happen!!! We were made for this. You were made for this. Found this treasure 🥹 Little did this tiny Shay know what God would do with her life. The places she would go. The people she would meet. The hearts she would be impacted by. To think I never wanted to leave my little hometown at 17… BUT Jesus!

‼️ BIG NEWS ‼️ I’M MOVING… to Washington!! Ah! Now that I’ve said that … ITS A CRAZY DETAILED STORY that won’t fit here in this caption so imma do my best to drop a 💣 and clean it up along the way. I never saw this coming, truthfully I wrestled it for weeks because I’m rooted in Atlanta and I was given a church building and blah blah blah. So trust me when I say I wrestled it out. I became a legit WWF wrestler in my heart. As the thought of moving began swirling around I fought it, killed it, and told it to leave only to realize that I needed to yield, surrender, and trust that Jesus was in this even if it was just to get my heart in the right place. It became very clear that The Lord was inviting me into something new. As I leaned in my heart began to soften and I was able to hear and see clearly. As it became clearer, it was also scary for me to actually think about letting go of a life here that I love and thought I’d be living for decades to come. (NOT to mention God got my family involved in the details but that’s a side bar) So I got close kingdom friends involved, sought out wisdom, cried (still doing that), and let people I trust walk with me in it all. I know this is HIS doings and I can fall back on that! I also think Jesus just likes to keep me on my feet and feeling like I’m on the edge all the time. This is a life following Him. There is so much to be said and questions that will be filled in as time goes on but for now… pray for ya girl. She is feeling so much at one time.

🪶 “I feel like a feather being tossed in the wind.” I responded to someone when they asked how I was doing. I said it with a giggle behind my half smile. I am not sure how this would make many others feel but there is something about throwing myself out onto His winds that brings me to life. Most of my life following Him has been this feeling of risk and a surrendered following. Most of it I didn’t have exact answers for but it’s been this deep rooted walk with Him that has provided for some of the greatest stories. And yet I’m sitting here knowing that this “throwing myself into His winds” is upon me again. Yesterdays stories with Him is beautiful but it’s the invitation to go for more with Him. To never settle and always dare that there’s more in Him that has yet to be touched. It doesn’t matter how many times I have been here it doesn’t ever feel comfortable. It doesn’t feel brand new because I’ve built history in these spots and I’m leaning into all that I’ve seen Him do as I throw myself into the winds. I heard Him a few days ago”Shay it’s time to cast your nets out on my waters again!” It’s the beckoning of a faithful Father. This is where I find my purpose when I let go of preconceived ideas and cling to Him. This is the heart of someone who has tasted and seen that it is worthy to bury yourself into the soil of faith and water it with obedience! This one is for those who are feeling like a feather flying in the wind. He is the wind that you throw yourself out into. Let go. Dare to trust He knows what He is doing. This is for those who contend for more and are tired of same old same old. This is for the hungry ones. The ones that are desperate to see Him and will lay down to become a landing pad for Him to touch Earth. You aren’t too much. You are exactly the feather He is looking for! // Mountain View’s with .fomenko weeks ago!

kingdom fam// I have been reading so much in the Epistles lately and I am always so intrigued by how much Paul writes letters to the leaders and churches that he loves. He is always desiring to visit them. He is always spurring them onward. I imagine they were spurring Him on. Paul had letter writing but I personally am thankful for phones! I sit here thinking of this last trip to WA and I can’t help but feel some of these feelings. I am not even close in comparison to Paul but I love that he loved so deeply and really was invested in people. I realize that when He wrote “I hope to come to you” to the Philippian church it wasn’t because he had to but also because He always wanted to. He wanted to be around people who were going after Jesus. I believe it was one of his greatest joys to catch up with friends and fellow workers in Christ. I think He wasn’t just there to pour out on them but also to be refueled and refreshed alongside of them. I love that He was about being where He was assigned but also realized it takes a big kingdom family to really accomplish all that Jesus is up to on the Earth. It takes a family and I am eternally grateful for the Kingdom family I have in Washington State. I could write books on who you all are to me and how much you all cause me to want go after Jesus harder than when I first show up. It never ceases to amaze me how much God can knit hearts together. I consider you all when I think of the riches of His glory in my life. I think of you when He talks about doing this as a family. You all sit on my heart in a way that only God could allow. It is one of the greatest gifts to my heart to have you all in my heart but also to get such deep rich time with you all when I come. I look forward to all that God has in store for us as we all run after Him no matter where we are on the Earth. I love you all deeply. Scroll to the end to see emmy pretending to drive me around.

I’m convinced once again that Jesus knows what He is up to and we just simply get to follow the victorious lamb. Honored to run after Jesus alongside these amazing women and see so many women marked by God. In events it’s easy to fall into what we know in our heads and formulas but to seek out and yield to the spirit fully comes with such unknowns and it was a gift to see God move in some beautiful ways that possibly wouldn’t have happened if we sought a formula and not his face. Imma tell y’all now… let go of the formulas and look for his face at all costs.

I am still processing so much that took place these last 10 days with my Iris Global family. Around 9 years ago I packed my bags and left to Mozambique for harvest school. I didn’t know what life would be like after. I didn’t have 5 year plan or a 10 year plan. I just knew I wanted to chase after Jesus and see what he was capable of doing with my life laid down. Let’s just say that I couldn’t have planned anything that has and is taking place in my life. His way is really better than anything I could have planned or dreamed for my life. It hasn’t been easy and I don’t expect it to get easier, I expect to surrender that much quicker and yield to the potters hand with no negotiations in my heart. It’s a honor to have been ordained by Iris Global. They don’t take it lightly and I deeply appreciate that. It wasn’t a simple prayer that was said. It came with weight and reverence of the Lord. It came with understanding of what it is really is to be ordained and that cost that comes with that. In a day where such moments can be minimized and taken for granted, all I could do was bawl my eyes out. I was asked some sobering question before being ordained such as these “are you willing to die for the Gospel? Are you prepared to serve those around you at all costs?” It wasn’t questions about a platform or strategy of building a ministry. It was questions that got my eyes on Jesus and not on my self. It’s with great joy that I could have the gift of giving my life away like Jesus. It’s a holy and sacred call and I pray that as we see reformation in the church the reverence of the call is remembered also.

It is important that we recall that it is not what we do or what people say about us. It’s not about what we have to show for our lives. It’s important we go to places and be around people that cause us to sink into the truth of our spiritual identity of being a son or daughter of God. There are a few places that I personally can be surrounded by deep kingdom family and also be surrounded by nature that makes me feel two inches tall and leave me in awe of my loving merciful Father. I highly recommend to make time to do the same. Let yourself be reminded you are really small in the hands of a very big God that deeply loves you.

I don’t know about y’all but I’m thankful I lose the right to view myself through any other lens than Christ. It could just be me but I can’t say my thoughts towards myself are like His all the time. I lost my rights to feel inadequate and insecure. I lost my rights to be led by lies and emotions. I lost my right to lead my own life and quite frankly, I’m thrilled about it. We all listen to lies and feel insecure and can be emotional roller coasters but when we said “yes” to Jesus those got put into check and now we live with His view of us at the forefront. You will feel all the things and you will hear all the lies but YOU lost the right to make peace and identity with them in your life. When you see Jesus rightly… you’ll see yourself rightly.

To the pioneer, some days you are the fruit you need to see. You are crying out and building something beyond you- yet you are the one currently being changed. Pioneering is not for the faint of heart because it takes a transformed heart to keep at it. Pioneer you are the seed in the ground. The seed that goes into the ground and dies will bear much fruit. Pioneer you may not see lots happening on the outside but if you’re seeing major changes inwardly in your heart with Christ you’re doing this rightly. If you are experiencing Christ cleaning the inside of your cup than you’re on the right track. Don’t get success and fruit mixed up. You can be successful and still not be bearing Godly fruit. Fruit comes from intimacy. Pioneer, you may be still striking the rock but if your seeing fruit in your own life then I’d say you are starting to see water come forth. Stay in my friends.