Focus On The Promise Through The Journey

Sometimes, when we've been walking through our journey for so long we can end up losing the focus of our actual destination. God gives us a promise, but when more time than we were expecting passes, it becomes harder to see "it". We question, we cry out, we even lose hope for a sec., but we never give up. I've always had a saying ever since I gave my life over to Jesus and encountered Him: There's no turning back anymore no matter what, no matter how hard it gets my only option is to move forward.

"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward."  -Martin Luther King Jr.

God never said the journey of this life would be easy, but he did say that the arrival would be worth it! -Max Lucado

I've been asking God the same question over and over and over again for quite some time (years) and today I was just stopped by Him. He reminded me of a prayer I made when I was 15 years old and how He answered the beginning of it during that time. To me the little sign I asked God for at the end of my prayer was just a quirky inside joke between me and God, but he answered it. I joke with what I ask and He jokes by responding super quick. You see, the problem is that I expected that my whole prayer list would be answered and packaged up to be delivered to me all at once, but God's ways were different. He said it would be given to me but He didn't say when or how. My journey to the promise has been a rough one, I can't deny it, but I have come out a stronger woman who God intends to make stronger.

One Winter day during the Festival of Dedication, Jesus was confronted by the Jews who were also walking along in the temple courts. They surrounded Jesus and asked him "how long" he planned on keeping them "in suspense" and to just tell them "plainly" if he was the Messiah. While I was reading this story this morning in John 10:22-30 I knew without a doubt in my mind that God was talking to me. I had been crying out asking God to please just speak to me in such an obvious way because I couldn't get it, but He said to me that He already answered my question many times but I just wasn't seeing what He wanted me to see. I just wasn't getting it. When I started my walk toward the promise I was so sure, but then things got so scary bad that I let my gaze become foggy. I felt frustrated like those Jews did (of course I wasn't going to stone my Savior but I let anger and confusion get the best of me) because though they had heard the promise of Jesus' coming written in scripture, they let their gaze become foggy by what was said to them:the scriptures said that a Messiah was coming in a humble manner but it didn't say his name or the fact that he was going to be a carpenter's son.  The promise was delivered to them in different circumstances than they had expected in their hearts so they closed up their hearts and refused to see that God was living among them. The signs and wonders made it obvious but to believe meant that they had to be closer to faith and farther from their expectations. I knew that I couldn't take my anger and frustration out on my God, so instead...I took it out on the promise. That's a big no,no. I was so busy comparing my walk to others and asking God why others were happy with their promise fulfilled while mine seemed to be getting crazier and even more unpredictable. The thing is: God is not a cookie-cutter God, so He created individual people with individual stories. It's easy to buy into a one-for-all solution but that's just not true. We have to seek God's counsel directly from Him and then wait for His confirmation (through His word, dreams, people...etc). This whole week my seeking an answer for my question really escalated, and I see now as I write this that God has been answering me. Every morning with what I've been reading in the Word He's been answering me. It all connects. How God showed me in the Book of Genesis that he had to open Hagar's eyes to see the well of water so that she wouldn't let hopelessness in the middle of the dessert kill her and her son Ishmael, how God protected and cared for Ishmael as his only Father after he was rejected and sent away as God's plan to create him into a strong nation, and also how God looked into the heart of Rebekah and predestined her to be the wife that would say yes to an unpredictable marriage to Abraham's son Isaac. God spoke to me in detail about these stories all week long and finally I understand. Jesus was obviously the Messiah and my answer has been obviously staring me in the face for years. Jesus' answer to the Jews in the temple was this:

(John 10:27-30) My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one."

I am so sure of my salvation in Jesus and that He abides in me and I in Him by His grace alone, therefore my ear is in tune to what He's saying. The devil sometimes wants to make us doubt that, actually, the enemy always wants to make us doubt that because His mission is to kill, steal, and destroy us. I truly believe that Jesus wasn't just answering the Jew's questions...He was making a bold statement and letting the devil know that what belonged to the king of kings could not be taken from Him even by the thieve of thieves. We belong to Jesus and the devil has no right to touch us and our God who is greater can not be over-powered. I realized that the reason that I haven't responded to the many voices around me for years telling me to go this way and that way is because I've been fleeing from the other. I was once told a great truth: the devil takes no breaks and shows no mercy. He will use whatever he wants to use in order to kill you because your purpose threatens him. That goes for all of us. The enemy has tried to make me believe that I'm crazy for not listening to who I "should" listen to, dumb for "failing" those who I shouldn't, or just plain disobedient and worthy of receiving God's punishment when that is not true. Because the people around me have also seen the dessert that I have walked through with my promise in hand, they give advice out of hopelessness when I have been called to walk by the amount of faith that God has given to me. My walk is mine, entrusted to me by God and nobody will ever confuse me enough to snatch it from me. I am to complete my mission until I see the fulfillment of what God has promised me. I encourage everybody who reads this...stand strong and firm in the faith. Keep pressing forward with your eyes focused on the promise as you walk this life-long journey. May faith arise and I pray that hope sustain us through.

Battle Cry

I'm going through my own spiritual battle right now, but the Lord gave me this word after I prayed and opened up my Bible. This story is not quite ready to be shared but it will soon. But for now I leave you guys with "the" scripture and a song that's really been inspiring me and getting me pumped for spiritual warfare. 

(Micah 2:13) The One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate and go out. Their King will pass through before them, the LORD at their head."

God showed me countless times today that He goes before me. If I cry out, He listens and acts. He is on my side and I am on His. Standing strong in the middle of so much stress and consuming frustration is something that only God can do. I bless my current situation in Jesus name because I can feel better times right around the corner. Have a nice night ya'll and more details soon!

We Are Young But God is God

I've got nothing.That's a scary thought. When you feel like you have nothing to say. Like you can't explain how you feel. It's moments like these when we've got to inject ourselves with what God says. When we fill ourselves with truth suddenly our outlook on life changes. When we worship God on a daily basis with our song, with our dance, with our thoughts, with our bodies the God of all creativity begins to pour himself out on us. It's easy to get distracted and then just run with the motions of life even in our relationship with God but we can not forget that if we were created in His presence then it is only there with Him that we can come to life. For He is the God of the living. When you and I start to feel dry or like we have nothing more to offer it's time to draw near to our Lord, sit at the table and start talking. Invite The Holy Spirit to be with you no matter where you are. He's just waiting for your invite. Whatever darkness there is in us is like light to God and the more time we spend with Him the more He will invade. Wherever you go, invite the Holy Spirit and whether it is good or bad He will reveal these things to you, but you've got to let Him in to every detail of your life. Sometimes I feel like a broken record repeating myself but really the moment we realize that only a relationship with God will give us direction and the answers we need is the moment we will no longer depend on second-hand information. We can't depend on man to give us answers no matter how much revelation they have because God created us individually to have an individual relationship with each of us. 

I've learned something along my walk that I want to share with you. What The Holy Spirit has shown me is that when it comes to the children of God, He will never use a person to tell us something that He hasn't already been revealing to us first. Anything or anybody that gives us a word after that is only to serve as confirmation. So I encourage you to build your relationship with God deeper and deeper so that you become rooted in Him and won't be tossed back and forth like the wind by teachings and pretty words. Your spirit discerns what is of God and what isn't so we've got to listen carefully and be sensitive. I've walked away from so called "amazing opportunities" not because I'm crazy or scared but because God hasn't given me the green light. People of God have actually told me, "if you're waiting for an angel of God to descend from heaven and tell you to go, you're gonna be waiting all your life." I couldn't help but smile because I never thought...craziness, just craziness. You see I could have rationalized what they were saying and just gone along because these people in the natural sense are older, people of God, and dangling recordings and youth pastor titles for me in my face, but my spirit man was uneasy and rejecting this screaming no!!! in my heart. God has clearly spoken to me in the past and has confirmed things to me so for this to be said tells me this: there is no relationship with God or the relationship has grown cold. We have to learn that things aren't always what they seem and neither are people. Be on your guard always because in all reality it's not people we need to to guard ourselves from, it's the enemy who is standing right behind. For our battles are not against flesh and blood.The things of God are being done with the absence of His spirit and that right there is scary. His Word tells us that His people are destroyed because they lack knowledge. We can memorize scripture all we want because it's a powerful tool that we need but only the Spirit of God can reveal to us the exact word that we need for the present season. So while we're busy storing up we also need to listen and let God do the writing on the tablet of our heart.

*~*~*

(Luke 4:1-2) 

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by 

the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days 

he was tempted by the devil.

*~*~*

So, when you and I are full of the spirit we will be led by the spirit. The Holy Spirit was upon Jesus in overflow mode. Full of the Spirit Jesus entered a different kind of season where all that His father had revealed to Him was about to be put to the test. For 40 days Jesus had to put up with Satan's lies. I imagine Satan taunting Him during the day and trying to scare Him during the hours of the night. I had a dream once about a year ago that I want to share. There was a spiritual battle going on in my room that I couldn't see with my eyes but I could clearly feel and discern with my spirit. I felt a heavy presence in my room surrounding me that would not let me sleep. I got a sudden urge to cover up my feet and I knew this feeling from a few years back when a battled with this because I was not right with God. This time I knew that me and God were together and I was right with Him so I had no explanation for it. I literally began to think I had done something wrong but I shut that lie out quick. A few years back I would have run to my mom's room and asked her to pray and sleep with me but I had matured in the faith since then and I knew this was something I had to take before the Lord because I had to learn to depend on Him. I must have been 18 or close to 19 years old when this happened so remember we are not defined by our age but by our walk with God. I wasn't fully baptized with the Holy Spirit yet so I couldn't begin to battle in the spirit and talk in tongues like my parents so I did what I had always seen my mom do and rebuked the devil out loud and declared that I was covered by the blood of Jesus. A peace instantly filled my heart and I was convinced that God was right there with me. I'm pretty sure before I closed my eyes I had to have asked God to reveal the unknown to me because I drifted off into a dream. In this dream I could see myself sleeping on my bed but suddenly I felt uneasy because surrounding my bed was this huge lion, roaring and pacing back and forth at the edge of my bed. I was so scared and freaking out inside but all of a sudden, and I just can't forget this: all of a sudden I heard a peaceful, deep, resounding voice that spoke to me, "It's okay, go back to sleep. The enemy can do all he wants to try to scare you but he can't get on your bed and he can't touch you." In my dream I fell asleep after hearing God's voice. I knew it was my Jesus reassuring me that He was watching over me. That's the best picture that I can use to describe having peace in the middle of a storm.

We see later three examples of how the enemy tried to tempt Jesus' flesh but because Jesus submitted His flesh to God through fasting and prayer He rejected the lies. How He rejected the lies is what excites me the most! I'm giddy literally! Seriously that's the first time I've used that word. I get a lot a bit passionate about Jesus. Anyway...He just smacked the smirk off Satan's face! The difference between the devil and Jesus is not found in knowing the Word because Jesus is the Word and Satan knows the Word because He used to worship Him. Satan threw out scriptures but Jesus threw out revealed scriptures. Full of the Holy Spirit Jesus spoke the Word that God wanted Him to know for the exact moment. There will always be times when we are bombarded by verses but only through a relationship with God can we come to know which applies when. Spirit revealed knowledge of God's Word is what will silence the noise around us that tries to drag us back and forth. The same God of yesterday is today and what He did then He continues to do today. The amazing miracles that Jesus did are being done today through His Holy Spirit and I've seen it. Never forget:

*~*~*

(1 Timothy 4:12) 

Don’t let anyone look down on you because 

you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, 

in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.

*~*~*

Do you know what God is saying to us all right here?! Look, it doesn't matter how literally old or young you are or how little or how much spiritual maturity you have at this point in time...here and now I have called you to be an example! I have called you to be a light and shine bright on a stand regardless of whether others think you're worthy or not. They didn't call you, I did. They didn't anoint you, I did! Your God, your Creator, your savior, and redeemer. I'm here with you, walking along the same narrow road by your side shaping you along the way. So be an example to everyone who's watching, especially to your brothers and sisters in the faith. Let me change the way you talk, act around others, the way you love, the way you believe in me, and let me help you stay pure and be my holy bride here on earth. You just have to let me. Because I want to kill those old habits that hinder you from walking straight with me. I want to show you real freedom that doesn't come from a tattoo or from walking around YOLO ing everything. Just come to me I am your way, your truth, and your light. Don't forget why I saved you! There are lost souls and weary believers who need you to wake up and depend on my strength. You are young but I am who I am. So if I am who I am let all that I am change you. Let all that I am be enough for you. I desire with all my heart for people to be encouraged by your words and not tripped up. Stop trying to just get by and see how much you can get away with before it's considered a sin. Let me show you freedom. You don't need to talk like everyone else does to be heard, mu authority is enough and will get it done for you. A half truth won't change anybody because it's a lie. I want to put the whole truth that I am in you. Give out that truth and people will never be the same and will forever be changed. I desire for others to see the way you act when you're at church, at school, at work, or anywhere else and say I can see God! That will change lives! I want to show you what love really means so that you make no exceptions or preferences and so that even those who dub themselves unlovable come to know me through you. They will know forgiveness because I will give you a supernatural measure that will leave people baffled and knowing that it could only be Me in you. I'm going to show you that you can trust Me so that your faith will increase and like a child you will believe everything I tell you so that you won't be quick to run after the voice of the other. As your faith pleases Me My glory will invade and my kingdom will be established in you and through out the earth. I want to use you! Lastly, I know you can't stay pure without me in a world that promotes impurity and that is why you need to be fully baptized in my Holy Spirit. I did not bring you this far so that you could run away or give in, be bold! My Holy Spirit will teach you what is right and true so that those around you will not stumble by looking at your life but will look and be inspired to keep moving forward. You may be young but I am still God.

*~*~*

(Luke 10:18-21) 

He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 

I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions 

and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 

However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice 

that your names are written in heaven.” At that time Jesus, full of joy 

through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven 

and earth, because you have hidden these things from the 

wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 

Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.

*~*~*

///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?