Erin Wolff - A Heart After God

A HEART AFTER GOD by Erin Wolff, with Rory Wolff
Published by Creation House
A Charisma Media Company
600 Rinehart Road
Lake Mary, Florida 32746
www.charismamedia.com

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2010, 2011, International Bible Society. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked AMP are from the Amplified Bible. Old Testament copyright 1965, 1987 by the Zondervan Corporation. The Amplified New Testament copyright 1954, 1958, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NIV (1984) are from the Holy Bible, New International Version of the Bible. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are from the New King James Version of the Bible. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc., publishers. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois, 60188. All rights reserved.

All dictionary references are taken from Encarta, World English Dictionary (19982005), copyright Microsoft Corporation.

Design Director: Bill Johnson
Cover design by Nathan Morgan

Copyright 2013 by Erin Wolff, with Rory Wolff
All rights reserved.

Visit the authors website: www.heartaftergodministries.net
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: 2013930881
International Standard Book Number: 978-1-62136-352-1
E-book International Standard Book Number: 978-1-62136-353-8

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication.

First edition

13 14 15 16 17 987654321
Printed in Canada

DEDICATION AND
SPECIAL THANKS

F IRST AND FOREMOST, I want to thank the Lord. The life that Satan had planned for me was a life of pain, heartache, loneliness, bitterness, blindness, and complete and utter emptiness, a life not worth living; but the Lord rescued me and gave me a life of peace, joy, comfort, love, and everything good. I am so thankful to You, Lord, for each and every good and perfect gift that You have so generously poured out upon me.

Second, I would like to thank my dear husband. Thank you, Rory, for your constant love and faithfulness. God blessed me so greatly when He blessed me with you. There is no one in this whole world that I would rather be with. You constantly bless me with who you are and who you are becoming day by day. I love you so much!

I would also like to thank all of my beautiful babies. The Lord has taught me so much patience, love, and joy because of you. Joshua, you are faithful; Hezekiah, you are fascinating; Simeon, you are gentle; Nehemiah, you are witty; Justus, you are determined; Benjamin, you are indomitable; and Hadassah, you are precious. You are all the very best and one of the greatest blessings that I have ever been given. I love you all so much!

And last but definitely not least I want to thank everyone who has helped and encouraged me in the writing of this book.

Contents

1 Jacob vs. Esau:
Desire God More Than All Things

2 David vs. Saul:
Trust God in All Things

3 Abel vs. Cain:
Give God Your Best

4 Elijah vs. Ahab:
Obey God, Never Compromising

5 Joshua and Caleb vs. the Ten:
Fear the Lord, Showing Him Great Respect and Admiration

6 Mary vs. Martha:
Live by Faith, Not by Works

7 Hosea and Gomer:
Gods Great Love for His Unfaithful Bride

I N MAY OF 2010, a month and a half after having my fifth baby, the Lord gave me what I thought was a sermon. I wrote out what I believed the Lord told me to say and prayed, asking Him who I should give the sermon to. Within a few days the Lord put it on my heart that it was not a sermon but the first chapter and outline of a book. I felt very humbled and blessed that the Lord would ever give me the privilege to be entrusted with such a service.

Everything the Lord has told me to do in writing this book has brought me further from my comfort zone and has pushed me into a greater relationship and faith in Him. I am a very organized person. A year ago, if I thought the Lord wanted me to write a book I would have sat down with a pencil and pad of paper and started writing down an outline for every chapter, detailing everything. With this book, the Lord told me a name of someone in the Bible, and I looked up the name and read about that person, praying the Lord would give me some sort of revelation. When I got a revelation, the Lord then told me what to write. The whole time I was writing the chapter, I thought, This cant be right. I must not be hearing correctly, because it doesnt seem to make much sense, but God brought it all together at the end, and I am amazed. I never knew what I was going to write about until the Lord revealed it to me.

This has been a lot of fun for me, watching God work in my life. I am just an ordinary, stay-at-home mom, and I love the Lord with my whole heart and want desperately to know Him more. I want to glorify Him in all of my ways. I try very hard to be a good wife to my husband, submitting to him according to the Word of God, and I strive to be a good mother, teaching my children in the way that they should go, yet trying to hold on to a balanced life at the same time.

It amazes me that God can talk to me while I am changing a poopy diaper, while my children are fighting, the supper is burning, and Ive had five bad hours of sleep. What an amazing, tangible God we serve. God is able to be touched and is able to touch us in a very profound way. I desperately want not only the world but the church to know God in an awesome way. I want people to love Him with their whole hearts, having a great desire to persevere through all that this life throws at them, all the while having a firm grasp on God Almighty. I want Gods people to be a people without compromise, who trust in the Lord with their whole hearts, trusting Him with everything. I want them to know His furious love yet love Him back for His absolute greatness. I want people to want to give themselves completely to Him, holding nothing back. I want them to fear God, respecting Him for who He is yet knowing Him intimately. The limitlessness of God! I hope and pray that while we look at the lives of some of the greatest men and women of God, we will want to strive for that greatness and along the way fall madly in love with the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

I pray that your life will be a life that is truly lived. And to truly live your life, you have to trust God and jump into the river. May the adventure be nothing you expected it to be and yet immeasurably better than you ever could have dreamed.

LOTS OF LOVE, ERIN WOLFF

1
JACOB VS. ES AU

Desire God More Than All Things

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.

PSALM 42:1

I WAS WATCHING A show on TV where a man name Darren Wilson was being interviewed. God had told Darren to make a movie about His furious love. The only thing that God really told Darren was that he must go into the darkness to show the light. So he decided to go to some of the darkest places on Earth.