“I see your blushing cheeks opened like the halves of a pomegranate shown through your veil of tender meekness. When I look at you, I see your inner strength so stately and strong you are secure as David’s fortress your virtues and grace to cause 1000 famous soldiers to surrender to your beauty. Your pure faith and love rest over your heart as you nurture those who are yet infants.” (Song of Songs 4 TPT paraphrase mine.)
—
This season has brought me to a place of shifting—to go deeper with Holy Spirit to discover what pure intimacy with my Creator truly looks like. There is a space where I see the words as they are spoken and hear them echo throughout my soul. My Creator sees me this way. My Creator speaks to me this way, engages me this way, and loves me this way—with a knowing of all of me and a tenderness that I melt into His arms of protection and love.
I’d love to tell you about a family. There is a lot of extended family involved, but in this case, it’s a grandma raising her grandson. It’s a hard story. When I met them, Grandma was preparing to have her grandson come live with her full-time. I began teaching her TBRI® before he moved in. He was coming out of some very hard places.
At nine years old, he had explosive behaviors. Rage would overtake him when he became dysregulated. His fight response kicked in—he mostly hit walls and doors and threw things. His grandma has been diligent in learning TBRI®️. She worked through her own story and how it was impacting her relationships, not only with her grandson but with everyone around her.
Those big behaviors began to fade quickly, though they would still surface from time to time. Then this past fall, something happened. This little boy—now in a man’s body, though only eleven—didn’t go into rage when he became dysregulated. There was no yelling, screaming, hitting, throwing, kicking, or punching. Instead, he sat down in the grass and began to cry.
The tears were hard, but something was changing inside him. His capacity to experience feelings is increasing. He’s learning to understand what he needs and to use his words. In that moment, he was able to be met with love in a whole new way, as his body’s capacity to regulate continues to grow.
I am so grateful to walk alongside families and teach them what it truly means to meet their children where they are at. Connection is everything. I have seen many miracles over the last seven years. This work is a beautiful, humbling, and honoring space—to walk with people in this way, the way of love.
I never considered myself a writer, but one day back in 2017 everything changed. It felt like I received a download straight from the Holy Spirit—a story that I just had to share. Originally, I wrote it in a craft-store journal and made some copies for my nieces, nephews, friends and my children.
A few years later, after attending the Making Sense of Your Worth and Anchored training, I felt challenged to take that work and publish it. I realized it was good enough. That started a journey that led to the book being published in 2020.
Since then, it has been revised and updated, along with a Spanish version. You can get a copy of both of them on Amazon.
There was a season in my life when everything felt unbearably hard. The world I thought I knew was crumbling—truths I had clung to proved false, and all I could see was emptiness. Beauty seemed lost to me. I was drowning in pain, unable to move beyond what I was facing.
One day, someone prayed with me, asking the Holy Spirit to help. I could barely hold on; the hurt was overwhelming. Then, in a single, unexpected moment—while sitting in a parking lot in my car—I felt as though I left my body. Suddenly, I was transported into a place I now know as the Lord’s presence. The Holy Spirit consumed me with unconditional love.
I can’t fully describe it, but I remember the intensity of yellow swirling around me, vibrant and alive. As she prayed for the oil of joy to fill me, I experienced it—oil flowing out of that yellow swirling consuming unconditional love. In that instant, everything changed. My spirit awakened.
From that day forward, the Holy Spirit began to reveal truth to me—not my truth, but His. That encounter became the turning point, pulling me out of the unbearable pain and setting me on a journey of walking in truth and love. It was as if a spark ignited a flame deep within me—a flame that awakened the creator inside me.
Drawing and painting returned to my life, not just as hobbies, but as a way to cope, to process, and to move through the truth that was unfolding before me. Each stroke of my pencil or brush felt like a prayer, each image a reflection of grace. In that sacred moment, despair lifted, and I began to breathe again.
Jesus, in Luke 22:17–18, shares with His disciples that His time with them is drawing to a close, saying He will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. This statement points to a future fulfillment and underscores the significance of the moment. The “fruit of the vine” symbolizes the life that flows from Christ, as John 15 explains: Jesus is the true vine, and the Father is the vinedresser. When we abide in Him, we bear much fruit—evidence of His presence within us. Though pruning may seem difficult, it is meant to make us healthier and more fruitful, multiplying His work through us. In this way, our lives become a product of His life, and His presence in us enables growth and transformation.
There is a place of learning, a quiet walk in the Spirit, where unconditional love—love only He can give—becomes the air you breathe. In that sacred stillness, questions rise: What does it mean to be truly known? What does intimacy with Him, my creator, look like? It is more than words, more than ritual. It is leaning into Him, letting His voice speak into the silence, into the deep places of the soul where longing lives.
In the Song of Songs, chapter one, He whispers: Jodi Lynn, you are like a bouquet henna blossoms, plucked near the vine at the fountain of the Lamb. I will hold you and never let you part.”(TPT)
It is an image of my life at its source. He is redefining the very essence of who I am.
To some, this may seem insignificant, but for this mama, it was deeply meaningful. She wondered why her nonverbal autistic son would get out of the bathtub just to check where she was, then return to the water. Up until this point, she had never left him alone—she always stayed with him while he bathed. But on this day, she decided to step out for a moment to take care of a few things, not sure what he would do.
The most beautiful part was this: he stayed in the bath, okay with being apart from her, but he checked on her. He climbed out of the tub to see where she was, and as soon as he made eye contact, he went back to the bath. She asked me what this was about, if I had any thoughts. I told her that, from what I understand, it’s actually a sign of secure attachment. He feels free to explore—in this case, enjoy his bath—but he keeps checking in because Mom is his secure base: I’m okay being away; I just need to know you’re near.
This family has faced tough days since their son was about two years old, but now they’re on the mend, and healing has begun. I’m so honored to be part of this moment in their lives. For some, it may seem insignificant, but for this mom, it was monumental. Her son, once distant and disconnected, using behaviors to get his needs met, is now able to begin to regulate—and in this case, for the first time, bathe alone.
Visit Raivu Ministries at www.raivu.org to learn more about my work with families and individuals, “Building a community of people loving people- ensuring everyone is seen, heard, and valued.
My longtime mentor and teacher, Sandy with Sight Ministries at the Vineyard in Grafton, explained to me that the human experience is an event with spectators, where you are the only person on the field. There is nobody with you and nobody against you—it’s just you.
Every person you cross paths with in your life is sitting in the stands: people whose names you know and people you do not. Your parents, your siblings, your children, your friends, and even the person you married—all of them are sitting on the bleachers of your life. They are not on the field with you.
Some will ignore you. Some will encourage you. Some will speak negatively. Others will speak life. Some will cast disbelief, while others will cast optimism. Some will be dismissive. Some will be your biggest cheerleaders. Some will abandon and cast you off, but others will desire your companionship. However, they will all engage with you through their own journey, wherever they are in their race. They are only spectators in your life. It’s the way it was meant to be.
When I keep my eyes straight ahead, fixed on Him. I find that the things I desire most have become the reality that I walk in. Safety, stability, consistency, being delighted in, provision, and protection. My life is about Holy Spirit and me walking the journey together as I find my authentic self—the woman I was created to be.
Hebrews 12 :1-2 – TPT
As for us, we have all of these great witnesses who encircle us like clouds. So we must let go of every wound that has pierced us and the sin we so easily fall into. Then we will be able to run life’s marathon race with passion and determination, for the path has been already marked out before us.
We look away from the natural realm, and we focus our attention and expectation onto Jesus, who birthed faith within us and who leads us forward into faith’s perfection. His example is this: Because his heart was focused on the joy of knowing that you would be his, he endured the agony of the cross and conquered its humiliation, and now sits exalted at the right hand of the throne of God!
Visit Raivu Ministries at www.raivu.org to learn more about my work with families and individuals, “Building a community of people loving people- ensuring everyone is seen, heard, and valued.
Jesus came to bring “The Way.” He walked through every step that we will walk through as humans. He loved, He laughed, He cried—and in the end, He followed the Father’s heart for humanity. Jesus came because The Way of love needed to be laid.
There is so much in time and history that we do simply because of those who taught us. Many do not see a different way, nor do they want one. For those who are at the end of themselves and are brave enough to say ” I want a different way” He will faithfully show up.
In the depth of every human being, this journey is about love—our way, our path, our journey with the Holy Spirit in this lifetime, and what His purpose is for me and you. For me, when my time in the natural is up, there is nothing greater that I want to be known for than this: She loved like Jesus. She was not afraid to speak the truth. And when I was at the end of myself—and even in the middle—she was always open to giving me a cup of cold water.
Visit Raivu Ministries at www.raivu.org to learn more about my work with families and individuals, “Building a community of people loving people- ensuring everyone is seen, heard, and valued.
My work documents a season of history through a deeply personal lens. Each piece captures the quiet tension between memory and change, inviting viewers to pause with me in the space between what was and what is becoming. I create to preserve moments that might otherwise go unnoticed, turning small truths into visual testimonies. Through color, form, and rhythm, I offer a record of my lived experience — an invitation to witness, reflect, and remember.
You can take home a piece of my “record in time” at my online store at JodiLynn.art/shop
Thank you in advance for supporting me in my journey of loving “the least of these” and telling you about “His True Character.”
Visit Raivu Ministries at www.raivu.org to learn more about my work with families and individuals, “Building a community of people loving people- ensuring everyone is seen, heard, and valued.
The Art of Jodi Lynn 