One of the greatest joys of being a husband is boasting about my wife. My favorite preacher on the planet is my bride. Keeli boldly goes where few dare. This isn’t just when she ministers to hundreds at a time, but she also demonstrates valiant boldness when speaking to individuals. Most of the time, I’m thinking, “I wouldn’t say that to someone.” She can be brutally honest and simultaneously loving. She has made I Corinthians 13 a reality… Especially the passage that states, “Love rejoices in the truth.” In the moments Keeli speaks the truth of God’s love to people, I begin to see how selfless love is. Knowing the truth and holding it from others is an instrument of control and manipulation. Unfortunately, we see this in the church at an uncomfortable level. Imagine being invited to speak at a church and being told, right before you begin, not to mention the Holy Spirit because some might see Him as controversial or divisive (even though He is the key to unity).

How selfish it is for someone to have experienced the healing power of God and not offer it to those in pain? How selfish is it to know the benefits of being baptized in the Holy Spirit and not teach it? How selfish is it to build a ministry based on a preacher’s closeness with God rather than helping bring others to the realization that Jesus has already closed in on us? How selfish is it to know Jesus' limitless love and not shout it from the rooftops? Each time Keeli teaches people how to hear the voice of God, leads them to Jesus or in the baptism of the Spirit, or releases the healing power of God into their bodies, I see how unselfish she is. When I hear others say, “Why haven’t I heard about this before?” I realize just how fearless my wife is because of the boldness she has received from the Holy Spirit.

Since the moment I fell in love with Keeli, I felt it was my duty to make sure she was able to fulfill her call to preach the Gospel each time the door opened. We were married and opportunities followed. She was invited on multiple occasions to address crowds with the Gospel. To my shock and awe, she declined. I asked her why she didn’t go and this was her response:

“I married you so we could go together.”

The opportunities didn’t end there. We still get invited to speak but we never fly solo. We believe there is something that has been missing from the message being preached. Crowds of hundreds or thousands of people cannot compare to the best ministry life has to offer: family. In the words of Keeli, “We always go together.” As my wife forfeited opportunities to travel abroad to do what she loves to do, she remained with her family, waiting for the opportunities to do the very thing we love to do more than anything – together as a family.

-Jonathan Fawcett

Image: a physical likeness or representation of a person. A little girl twirls, dances, dresses up and takes care of her baby dolls. She runs to the mirror as soon as she puts her tutu and hat on to see how beautiful she is. In that moment the reflection she sees is not simply her but Jesus in her. Childlike faith allows the little girl to see the beauty in her eyes and how she was so perfectly made. As time goes on we so easily forget those reflections we once saw and we begin the search for imperfections in our own life. The mirror once brought joy but as time goes by we so often allow the mirror to pinpoint the frizz in our hair or the blemish on our chin.

This way of life is contradictory to the heart of Jesus. The more time we spend with someone the more we replicate them. Watch a teenage girl find a new group of friends in middle school and in no time you will notice her buying the same brands and wearing the same makeup as her “best” friends. It is a natural development that we take on the look and personality of those around us.

There is no question that Anneli is mine and Jonathan’s little girl. Not only does she look like us but she acts like us. Her dad plays the guitar so she plays the guitar. Her dad loves chocolate so she loves chocolate. Her dad hangs his sunglasses on the collar of his shirt so she hangs her sunglasses on her shirt. The examples go on and on. She spends time with us therefore she is like us.

Being made in God’s image not only means that we look like Him but we also act like Him. There is no denying that we are Anneli’s parents and there should be no denying that we are God’s children.

I believe when the enemy looks at us he sees Jesus because we were made in His image. We may not have the same skin color or hair color as Jesus but we are a representation of Him on earth.

Anneli has been saturated in the practice of God’s presence. When we pray, she folds her hands. If we ask her if she wants to pray, she never says, “No.” If she needs prayer, she will grab one of our hands and put it on her head. When we worship, she worships. When music plays, she lifts her hands and dances. When someone sings, she sings. When someone plays an instrument, she wants her little uke to play with them. When someone needs healing, she will pray for them and they get well. Your ministry is your family. Your mission field is your address. What happens behind the walls of your home will change the lives of countless people outside of your home through your children. Your love is not a face you put on for your church gatherings. It is a genuine manifestation that thrives and overflows from family. Before you show the image of God to the nations, be like Jesus in your living room.

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” --Genesis 1:26-28, NIV

-Keeli & Jonathan Fawcett