Testimonies

(Psalm 106:13) But they soon forgot what He had done and did not wait for His plan to unfold.

Just some food for thought: Don't forget what God has done and wait for His plan to unfold. Trust, it's going to be awesome

The Lord just spoke this in to me this morning and I was amazed. Because some pretty supernatural things have happened over these past few weeks and I felt Him saying...Don't forget what I do for you, constantly remind yourself so that in the future when you come across a difficult situation in which you have to patiently wait upon me you will never doubt my goodness. You'll simply wait and pray as you watch that season unfold. I totally get what God is saying because if you're like me you've probably had those moments when you speak before you should and then right after you find out that there was no reason for you to say what you did because it all fell into place anyway. And then afterward you feel dumb and awkward about it. It's the same way with God. The Israelites just got so impatient with God because they felt like they were on a roller coaster ride with no end, when in reality it was their lack of trust in God and complaining that shaped their view point. It is all about our viewpoint and that is why God tells us to fix our eyes on the eternal heavenly things. We can not grow impatient and start worrying before the whole story is revealed to us. I'm so happy to be writing again y'all and here are some of the testimonies of what God's been doing since my mini-absence. God saved me from a car accident, I escaped being stuck in an elevator when power went out at my university the moment I stepped out, and I also received three free tickets to go to the Got Faith Fest (ft. For King And Country, Francesca Battistelli, Sanctus Real...etc.). That's some prety big stuff that I can't help to be wowed by. The church where me and my fiance are serving at right now is growing more each day and we're working hard to bring up new musicians and singers who know what worship truly means. Plus I can't contain myself when I sing because I love it when the Holy Spirit just does His thing. People have just been falling under the weight of God's presence and that brings joy to my heart. Once you've tasted God's glory there's literally no going back and I am truly excited about our new church family in this season. Sometimes we think that it's our surroundings that need changing but I've learned in those kind of moments that God is working on our hearts changing. Remind yourself of all that He's done for you, the big and small, and that will keep your eyes on His goodness. If you have some testimonies to share, feel free to comment bellow because I'd love to hear about what God is doing in your life. Nothing's too small to share so let's fill up blogger with some praise reports. God bless!

Change & Growth

I am officially 21 years old. My birthday was on September 13th and the Lord gave me the same gift He gives me every year: a rainstorm. I woke up at 6:00 AM to the sound of rain hitting my window. My family and my fiance and I had dinner and it was honestly a really nice day. I have so much gratitude in my heart and God is the number one reason. My life is in no way "perfect" but I've learned that our focus determines how we live. If we focus on having "the perfect life" we'll never truly be fulfilled because God sent us to this world with a mission and it wasn't to simply be happy and comfortable nor to strife for our own pleasure. Fulfillment and joy is in walking in what God has called us to. Only each of us knows what that thing is. The Word phrase that jumped out at me during my morning Bible read was, "run in such a way as to get the prize." Only I know my crown so only I will understand what my prize and run are all about and no one else. It's been quite a season of learning to hold firm to God's promises no matter what tried to make me let go and walk away. God gave me peace and joy during the storm and then at the end He gave me the ultimate letter of confirmation. This recent season was a huge faith season to the point where I truly had to believe the still small voice was His without proof to show those who criticized it. I thank God I went through it but I also thank God it's over. Will it get harder? Oh I'm so sure it will because the calling isn't a game. The Holy Spirit is training us to walk through the valleys of darkness and rescue those who are bound there and hidden behind prison walls. I'll never forget this season. But a new time is coming and it's here actually. This next season I feel like God is going to grow me. My roots will sink deeper and my flowers will bloom.  Change has not been an easy subject for me and I've gone through a lot of that lately...a lot. My fiance and I are helping to lift up a new church band at a local church and we're serving there right now (me vocals and him on the instruments). I've gotten to truly meet some of the church members and the pastors and honestly there's so much genuine love there to the point that I feel like if I'm seeing Jesus and his love face to face. I've never witnessed this and that's sad for me to say but it's true. These people open their home to the least of these and give more than what they have to help others. It's a beautiful sight. Daniel's living arrangements have changed so he lives a little farther and I'm about to start doing my practicum hours at The Family Church with Celebrate Recovery and hopefully with the church therapist. So many new things and new people are coming into my life and it's working for good. I'm staying prayed up and clinging to my morning Bible time because I know that I'm going to need a bigger anchor for the bigger boat that God is giving me.

Embracing The Unexpected

 

I haven't written anything in a long while but life has continued and I know it's the perfect time to return. I've missed this. The whole morning and hours to follow I could feel my Lord calling me to approach Him, to spend time with Him, to soak up His presence. Last night I grabbed a hold of my Bible, ran downstairs with Cody (our new puppy), found my pencil pouch that contains my highlighter and pen collection, and finally got to sit down on the living room couch. As I hugged my Bible tightly, I said a quick prayer (too excited and expectant I guess) and asked the Lord to speak whatever He wanted me to know. Without even thinking about it, the Holy Spirit brought to me one name: Joseph. I was like, huh? And again I felt it in my spirit. By then I was already flipping through pages and finding my way to the first chapter in the Book of Matthew. There I began to read about Joseph. 

This young man who loved God so much fell in love one day with a young God-fearing woman named Mary. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her so he asked for her hand in marriage and the pledge was made and they were happily married. Before they even got to come together as newlyweds, Joseph discovered that Mary was pregnant. I can only imagine the heart-ache, fear, and anger that was eating him alive. He loved Mary so much that He was even willing to divorce her secretly so that they both wouldn't have to suffer public humiliation and ultimately so that she would not be stoned to death. What Mary alledged was proposterous because it had never happened before...someone being impregnated by the Holy Spirit. Joseph's world was crumbling down and he thought Mary was crazy. Right when he was thinking about backing out he had a dream, a God moment, that changed everything. God's message to Joseph was to "not be afraid to take Mary home as [his] wife, because what [was] conceived in her [was] from the Holy Spirit." God was telling Joseph to not abort his God-given assignment because this blessing in disguise was going to change the world. 

God clearly spoke to me and said, Deya, do not be afraid to accept the challenge, this blessing in disguise, that I am giving you just because it doesn't look like what you envisioned. Because just like verse 22 reads: "all this (the public humiliation, doubt, and heart-ache) [is taking] place to fulfill what I the Lord [have] said." There have been things that we as God's children will have to face, challenging and hurtful, that are not meant to hurt us. These things are meant to give us a hope and a future. For me it's my relationship and my family but for you it might be something else. The love is there but times are tough and the enemy does not give the past any rest. Don't you dare give up (I am definitely preaching to myself here). What will come out of this hard thing is a blessing beyond measure. If you know God has spoken something to you and He has confirmed it then keep moving forward with your eyes fixed on Jesus, knowing that you are carrying something or someone that is near and dear to God. It's important. It won't always be easy and we might stumble but God is with us. God is with us!

(Psalm 73:26) 

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

///Will You Still Worship When Your Usual Way of Connecting With God is Cut Off?///

The key that opens the door into God's presence is intimacy; It's a singular action that later turns into a plural activity. To have an intimate relationship of any kind there first has to be a connection, that bridge that allows communication between two Spirits. (John 4:24) tells us that "God is Spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth." When we feed our Spirit then our flesh, weak or strong, has to submit under the authority of Jesus. The case for me this week was weak flesh and a strong Spirit. I know when you first read that last sentence it sounds a bit bizarre or maybe a bit uppity but the Lord knows the details of my week and these days have truly stripped my flesh off to only reveal my Spirit. In past seasons I've had to battle through my flesh getting in the way of my Spirit's purpose and I continue to struggle with this of course but God had something new to teach me this week. The battle that I had to face required me to solely depend on the strength of my Spirit Man: I had been feeding Him with word, music, preachings...etc. and now came the time to see the fruit of that. I have seen the fruit and the words that were declared did not return void.

Sunday night, the Lord gave me a dream: I saw myself at a party of some kind. For some reason I was there helping out and I went outside and started walking toward my Mom's SUV. When I was about to open the door I felt someone following me so I turned around and saw a young man walking up behind me. I locked the car and asked the guy if I could help him with anything and before I knew it he pulled out a gun and shot me. He just walked away after this and disappeared behind a wall. I felt myself fall to the ground and land on grass but I didn't feel the bullet penetrate me. I was shocked by this but instead of panicking I began to declare, "I cover myself with the blood of Jesus...The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want He makes me lie down by green pastures and leads me beside still waters..." And then the guy comes back, pulls out his gun, and shoots me over and over again. The more I declared The Word the angrier he got and the angrier he got the more he shot. The bullets couldn't touch me. There was like a force field blocking the bullets. The word of God became my faithful shield. I didn't know it then but God was preparing me for what was going to come and clearly He showed me that I was going to have to declare His Word through this spiritual warfare.

My voice was just gone for almost the whole week and if you express your worship to God through singing like I do then you know how horrible, horrible, that really feels. How impotent I felt when the guitar was being played. Every chord made my heart leap and my lips quiver with anxiousness. Day after day I drove in my car with only my hand raised up and my mouth tightly sealed. The Holy Spirit was there in that moment and saw my heart. It even began to drizzle so all I could do was smile. I felt in my Spirit so strongly that the enemy was not going to hear one complaint, nor one reproach, and he especially was not going to cause confusion as to why this was happening to me. My worship was not going to be defined by what I lacked, but rather, what I had. God loves it when I sing to Him but He loves me so much more. That's it right there! He wants us so so so much more than anything else we can offer Him. The way I was approaching and confronting this situation wasn't something I was doing with the intention of just receiving healing...it was about all my love being offered in the palm of my hand to my good and faithful God in the midst of difficult circumstances. I desperately wanted Him to know that I would worship and love Him no matter what I was going through...I wanted Him to just love my heart...I wanted to make Him smile.

 I didn't even have to memorize this scripture because once I read it, it was engraved in my Spirit. Spending the night on the couch far from my room could have provoked my frustration but instead I took my pillow, blanket, my Declaration Scriptures Notebook, and Bible and read until my eyes couldn't read another word. I declared (Jeremiah 17:14) after The Lord showed me this scripture as I was reading my Bible. What is used to harm us God can use to benefit us. It will work for your good if you're called to God's purposes. Will you still worship?

Make another connection and if that one is taken away make another and then another. If your voice is gone use your hands and if your hands are gone get down on your knees. If you can't dance pray and if you can't pray then converse in your mind with your God. Make a connection. In the natural you may not be able to sing so let your life be your song or maybe you can't physically bow down so let your every step be in full surrender to God. Don't let anything steal your worship because while you see it's tangible form, God see's its spiritual form. Will you still worship?

A Season Of Seeking Out The Hidden Things

When we find ourselves secluded theses are the seasons where one on one with The Holy Spirit we grow and mature. There is always a lesson to be taught and learned. I find myself in this season right now and The Lord is who He says He is. Faithful and true, holding my hand and walking me through. After some adjustments in my life The Lord revealed to my heart and placed this scenario before me: "There is a bus that is taking you and others to the next season and you got on early. Better to be the first one on than the last because the last ones to get on I had to push and force so they come hurt, scared, and confused. This is a season of seeking out the hidden things." I've been hearing this in my Spirit and then came God's word to confirm His spirit taught words to me:

*~*~*

(Isaiah 26:20) 

Go, my people, enter your rooms 

and shut the doors behind you; 

hide yourselves for a little while 

until his wrath has passed by.

(Isaiah 45:3) 

I will give you hidden treasures, 

riches stored in secret places, 

so that you may know that 

I am the Lord, the God of Israel, 

who summons you by name.

(Isaiah 48:6-7) 

You have heard these things; 

look at them all. Will you not admit them? 

“From now on I will tell you of new things, 

of hidden things unknown to you. 

They are created now, and not long ago; 

you have not heard of them 

before today. So you cannot say, 

‘Yes, I knew of them.’ 

*~*~*

I've been what feels like the last one on the bus and it is not pretty...it hurts. I thought my wounds were going to kill me but my Lord healed me and only the scars remain. I never understood the scripture that reads that God wounded us but now He would heal us until I encountered these seasons. God raises a banner and calls out to us but sometimes we hesitate for too long and enter a zone of false comfortability. And then He is forced to drag us because He loves us and can not sit there and watch us miss the prepared table that He has set before us. The confusion and pain won't last forever because our God is faithful and will bind our wounds and wipe our tears. There is rest in knowing who we are in Christ and what God wants us to really do. We will never be able to fit a man-made mold. That yoke is too heavy and only brings us neverending burdens. They are burdens disguised as servanthood obedience and kingdom obligations but God will not permit His loved ones to be fooled. 

*~*~*

(Psalm 127:1-2) 

Unless the Lord builds the house,

    the builders labor in vain.

Unless the Lord watches over the city,

    the guards stand watch in vain.

2 

In vain you rise early and stay up late,

toiling for food to eat—

    for he grants sleep to those he loves.

*~*~*

Just two Sundays ago I had this vision during the service while the team and I were worshiping in song and what I saw was a beautiful treasure box. I felt my Lord's excitement. He wanted His people to open it. He desired for us to open it. I say "us" because He longs for all of His children to want more of Him. To be curious and child-like in our Daddy's spiritual matters. This makes Him happy. The treasures of our Father's heart are found through communion and relationship with prayer, worship, and reading scripture in spirit and in truth. 

There are things that I've had to step away from because God is dealing in His way with those things and desires to keep me on His track. Those "things" in the natural seem good and should have God's stamp of approval because they are ministry related and done in His name but God's ways are higher and so much sweeter. Can anybody say amen?! Some people won't agree but that's OK, the murmurs just have to roll off your back. In the secret place with The Lord and with the support of those around you who can truly perceive the move of God this period of time will bring a new revelation of who God says you are. In this season, unlike other past seasons, it was easy for me to let go and move with the Spirit of God because I know He's going to teach me something good. I've tasted this very fruit in the past and I've seen God's goodness and the joy that overflows from His dwelling place.

On another note, My Summer II Mexican American Lit class officially starts tomorrow and I couldn't be any more excited. My best friend is also teaching me to play piano, something a few seasons past I thought would be impossible. My excuse was that I'm not a good multi-tasker but God just laughs at my excuses and hugs me before sending me on my way. I've been reading through The Bible so much to the point where it's been a day long thing sometimes. I know I won't always have that kind of time so this season is so important to and for me. It's a step back in order to step in. A hungry heart The Lord cannot resist and that's my purpose in this time...to love on my God and to rest in the fact that my Beloved's desire is for me.

///All Things Work Together For My Good {1}///

Packed my lunch and ate before class on Thursday.

My Intro. to Addictions class project this semester is to journal on an unhealthy behavior that I want to change. Instantly I thought of Romans 8:28 and smiled. God always knows what He's doing. Push. He pushes me to go further. My challenge is to start and maintain a healthy regular exercise routine. I've had my ups and my downs but my main problem isn't that I don't like exercising because I love it so much, my problem is time management. God is really helping me with this because with school, ministry, and a whole bunch of other stuff adding more to my list of to-do's is crazy. That's how God gets the glory in my life though..He leads me through things that I could only do with Him by my side. It continues to be an awesome journey and so far I am oober over excited to report that I have lost over 20 lbs! I'll share my exact number after my next appointment. Some yummy healthy recipes too. I challenge you to get healthy. Make the change with God's help, strength, and guidance. What pushed me was God tugging at my heart strings and saying that He didn't want me to do this because He loved me less as I was, but rather because this weight was keeping me from being 100% free before Him. I want to jump as I praise God and feel free!!! That's my fitspiration right there. I challenge you too...take care of your temple because God gave it to you. Blessings!

I love running at night right before I go to bed.
My playlist is a plus.