Assembly Line Blessings - Break The Mold

Funny how when we stare at the promises of God too long in our mind’s eye, that it causes our eyes to burn with tears because the images overwhelm us.  We must ask ourselves the pertinent question of – why would God bless me like that?  Who am I for him to do all that?  Would he? Could he possibly be that good to me?  People like you and me who are looking for God to move in a mighty way, to break the mold that has had us bound and ensconced in a placed where there is over-crowding (the bottom of the barrel) and people for generations alike.  Molds create the same thing repetitively and repeatedly over-and-over again without any variation or discriminate markings.  The enemy wants us to believe that the life that God has called us to is a figment of our imagination – Only.  God made each of individually, separately but in his likeness and image – Unique to anything or anyone.  To get out of the assembly line of only receiving salvation and then living a life that is sub-par to what he has reserved for us is dishonorable to what Christ Jesus died for, to say the least.  God created the stars in the heavens as innumerable as the sands of the seas.  And that same God, the one that we serve, the one that we trust, the one that we believe in, the one in which we live, move and have our being can go as big as we can imagine and trump that.  God spoke all that we see and don’t see into existence.  There is nothing that he cannot do.  There is nothing too hard for him.  The hard part is in us – hardened hearts – we find it difficult and some impossible, to simply believe that he is able to do what we believe him for.  Only faith will break us out.  Break the mold that has your mind incarcerated against the power of God. If you keep doing what everyone around you is doing – you are (bound) to get what everyone else is getting.  Salvation is free but the exceeding and abundant blessings come to those who believe that God rewards those who Ask, Seek and Knock.  So… A.S.K.

The American Dream?

Who wouldn't buy into it?  Why wouldn't you believe that what has happened to others can also happen for you?  This is America right?  Of course the “American Dream” is alive and well in the minds of all who stand perched before the wistfully flapping’s of a flag colored in the famous red, white and blue and to many those colors don’t run from anything or anybody.  Even with all that many immigrants have had to endure on their passage to this country, my tears of thee; there is still no other country that droves of expats would rather reside and put down stakes to make a life in – America the Beautiful.  And those are not words of sarcasm because I know the freedom that I experience everyday compared to the oppression, apartheid and segregation that I witnessed on a daily basis in countries on the nightly news that flash between Brian Williams stripped ties and war torn nations and countries; and you are right if you think that I should be thanking the Lord daily for this country because I do.  However, there is a place – not a country, nation, territory or annexed piece of land that trumps what even America herself can offer and that is a Promised Land of God that I seek to not only view from the outside looking in but from the inside out; fretfully calling out to others to desire more than what this world has to offer.  America could fall just as it has risen.  God and he alone create nations that stand or fall.  Empires and dynasties that were once dominant and thriving seemingly forever hardly can have a trace of their vestige found because it is God who sustains, God who builds up and God who can crumble a nation.  There is a dream that is higher and eclipses the bright lights of Ellis Island or even the dim illumination of a hand-hewed underground passage dug by Mexicans escaping to America for a better life. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob allowed them to dream of nations that hadn’t been created.  My prayer is that we all find favor in the sight of that same God who can cause us to dream of things that are greater than that which we already see. 

Roadside Assistance

There is nothing that brings me greater joy than praying, writing, typing and evangelizing.  When I think about what I would rather be doing, I just know deep down in my soul – through to my spirit – that I am to write and encourage and to spend time in your presence Father.  I am unable to write as I would like, but I find it easier to type today since I am at work but what is inside of me must come forth – be let out or else it will consume me from the inside out or I would rupture at the seams.  I recognize that not only the enemy but my own flesh wars against me.  They attempt to try to take me off task and not focus on what is truly the will of you Father God.  My purpose is found in your will - which I know for sure.  However, at times I allow my mind to drift to prosperity like houses and vacation get-a-ways.  But even those pictorials that zoom through my mind at Nascar speeds are just a fleeting as they are fast because if I do not walk in what I have been called to do while in this time upon the face of this earth – it will have all been in vain and for not.  The one thing that I refuse to do is live this life not having thoroughly enjoyed the exceeding and abundance that you Lord Jesus suffered the cross for me to possess.  Not just to have or experience but to possess for generations and glorifications for you Lord.  The title of this prayer is not my own, though I would have liked to have been the one who came with that snazzy zinger of a title; especially after last night when I wrote to you about my adventurous but ever-so blessed day in you that had all to do with you Father being my “Roadside Assistance”.  It was the title this morning for my devotional from out of the Daily Bread.  At first I just read over it but then the significance began to resonate in my spirit to let me know that you heard me yesterday and last night for that matter - Thank you Father for always hearing me - And for not only hearing me but responding me and to my need.  People would not believe how you speak to me – I can hardly believe how you permeate my everyday life.  I know that you are with me Father and have never left nor forsaken me; and more than that, more than anything – I know that the vision will come to pass because my faith will not fail.  Lord, it is a mountain that I cannot move without your spirit because the blessing that I am bringing down from heaven to earth cannot be delivered by any other means - not by might nor by power.  Sampson would not have been able to pull down the pillars in his own strength – only when your spirit overcame him.  I need your spirit to overcome me Lord.  I submit my own will to yours because only in your will is where I can find the peace, the grace, the mercy, the favor and the anointing needed to overcome this world and myself.  Last night I had a song in my spirit by Gavin Mcgraw (Not over You) that I went to bed with and this morning I awoke with another song overpowering me.  The song “Not a Bad Thing” by Justin Timberlake and it was as if it was a response to what I heard in my spirit last night.  No Father it is not such a bad thing to fall in love with you – Indeed it is the best thing that has ever happened to me. True love – unconditional love transforms because I want to please you, I want to be with you and I cannot get enough of you.  Thank you for welcoming me with the open arms of Christ Jesus to spend time in your presence.  In Jesus name I pray.  I love you Lord Amen.

JOKERS WILD

I know now.  What is it that I know?  That it takes far more than most are willing to give, to take, to do, to accomplish, to suffer through, to bear and to endure; in order to rise above the level where they are to an astronomical mind-shattering height.  It is the reason why so many just settle where there are and say to themselves, "what will be - will be", and accept the status-quo that life just hands us a deck of cards that we have to play.  Just like the Joker in the deck is wild - so is our God.  Nothing can beat him and I can call forth the life that suits me (yes pun intended) that I choose and not my opponent.  He is the highest entity in which we can throw down against our enemy and know that what I hold in my hand is all that I need - Faith in God.  Retirement was once a goal almost unbelievable and inconceivable for our forefathers, coming from families that hardly produced a high school graduate, not to mention a college degree.  Retirement is now becoming a figment of our imaginations because there is hardly a company around for 20 or 30 years in order for you to retire from - should that be your goal.  Our goals have shifted.  We now want to own the business we bleed, sweat and cry tears for; we want to work less and play more and still be productive. Mogul mindsets are what we have but with a miser spirit.  God said that he would give us vineyards we didn't plant and houses we didn't build and folks, it is out there but we have to get that old way of believing out of our hearts and mind and take God at his word.  All that we used to fall back is no longer there - the system, our parents, our grandparents and securities we mistook for our normal.  Soon all we are going to have to rely on is our faith in God and nothing less.  God once led us by seeing miracles daily, pillar of clouds by day and pillars of fire by night.  However, he wants to bring us into our Land of Promise but now we must possess it and it will only be through the power of faith.  He cannot hold our hands forever.  At some point we must trust him fully.  Therein lies where many are falling short.  Fear will come. Doubt will smolder your fire and you have to use your flint stone of faith to strike up another ember to light your way back to praising God through all of the unknown that lay before us - Knowing that he is God and besides him there is no other.  Faith is the master key that unlocks every door that God wants you to walk through.  It’s hard to fight but even harder to lie down and take a whooping.  When we fight back it causes the length of the battle to lessen quicker than just taking the beating. Some folks will beat you down the street and in front of your friends and family because they know that you refuse to fight back.  Their goal is to embarrass you and to keep you from standing up for yourself.  Our enemy is no different.  Every now and then we may take one for the team but God’s word says in Isaiah 61:7 For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.

All-Inclusive

There is nothing lacking, no deficiency to be found in God.  We serve a God who is All-Inclusive.  And his promises are Yea and Amen, but we must believe past what our eyes can visualize and be transcended to that place where you are not quite sure that it truly exists or not, but you know that it was a vision from God and a sign of things and a life to come.  If faith was easy, everyone would be doing it; and it wouldn’t be a mandate from God of what must be done in order to receive the impossible.  There is not one jot or tittle of God’s spoken/written promise(s) to us that will pass us by, if we only believe that he is God and a rewarder of them  that diligently seek him.  I want it ALL – not some.  Whatever all God has for me – I want it and I want it NOW.  Ask. Seek. Knock.  Acronym – A.S.K. Either way you look at it – God says you must ask in order to receive. 

KNOW THAT YOU KNOW

Know that they are and no matter how the dice rolls or how many times you crap out - you still when. You have the favor of God over your life.  You gotta know that you know that you KNOW!

Beating The Odds

Beating the odds when you know that they have been formed against you, to not only defeat you but to bring about your demise – you tend to pay more attention to the rules of engagement.  And you find out that there are no rules.  To overcome generations, not just that of your own life but progenitors long gone, of disenfranchisement, oppression, poverty, and lack in all areas is an insurmountable foe that cannot be defeated on your own.  It takes the mighty hand of God to take you into the land that he has promised to you and the generations that came before you.  In each generation there are a few that seem to excel in faith and aspirations that they generate enough sonic boom in order to orbit out of the existence of “not enough”.  To go where God is leading us, is to accept that we are traveling out of our normal solar system of the earth realm and we are determined to explore space and new galaxies that have yet to be witnessed by earth dwellers and earthly beings with carnal minds that limit what God wants to limitless do in our lives.  Please know that the odds are against you for a reason.  They are intended as such, so that there is no room for boasting or garnering glory, credit, praise or honor that rightfully belongs to the Father in Heaven.  God is the one that hedges the bet against the enemy to give us the edge to win a game that was rigged from the onset.  Don’t make a fool’s bet, when you can count your cards with God and win in this life, not some of the time, but all of the time.  

The Dating Game

Are you the consummate dater?  Never allowing transparency and comfortability in a lifetime commitment called marriage.  There is a level of freedom when you are allowed to be authentically you while sharing a space and life with another individual.  All the pretense and putting-on airs eventually ebbs away and you are left with who you are raw and uncut.  Cruise control is set and the relationship goes from a standard shift, to a manual, except for the occasional routine maintenance needed to keep a well-running coupling performing at a peaceable level.  No relationship is perfect because no one individual is perfect.  But you can have an uncongested commute in the life of happily ever after.  I can only speak from a woman’s point-of-view; and there is nothing like not having to always be on point!  To not be on my best behavior, to tell him that I do not want to go over to his mother’s house, to be me – character flaws and all.  Of course it is unsettling at first to place a heart that loathes being hurt, into the hands of another person whom you ultimately cannot control what they will do with it.  Some think that being married is a conformity that restricts, which in all actuality there is a freedom that is truly unexplainable.  If your husband or wife isn’t your best-friend, perhaps you might want to re-evaluate who is and why?  Spiritually – if God isn’t your best friend and you cannot go to him with whatever is going on in your life – the good, bad and the indifferent; perhaps you need to re-evaluate your relationship as well.  God wants to be married to us and he wants us to get cozied up and comfortable in him and trust that he is faithful and full of fidelity.  He wants to show you more of him but you have to be fully committed in order to receive that level of intimacy.  When you only date, there is an automatic boundary that is implemented that keeps each participant from giving their all.  God wants to show you more of him and give to you exceeding and abundantly in all areas of your life, but he wants you all to himself.  You hate infidelity and so does God.  God told you off top just how jealous he is, so he expects the same from us.  You only have three choices to choose from on God’s version of the dating game – The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.

DEAD WEIGHT

Have you ever had to assist an injured person or disabled individual because they were rendered immobile? That person had become dead-weight and they are leaning on us to support and carry them.  Many of us have become that same dead-weight to other people, family and even to God.  God doesn’t need our help but he does want our participation in our rehabilitation.  At some point we need to be involved with our recovery process.  We will get back to full health much faster if we would grab ahold of God and use his strength to pull ourselves up – not by your own bootstraps but by his Spirit!  Do not be your own hindrance to getting what God has for you. 

 

Man up!

Question:  Why would you waste your time worrying or pondering what another person is saying or for that much - thinking about you, when they are going through just like the rest of us trying to find their way through this life; rather they are successful or not? From the greatest to the least of us – we all are enduring something; and we all will until our demise.  The only one that you should be trying to please and garner an understanding of is the Lord.  Most of the time the Lord will instruct you to do something unconventional in order to get you to focus solely on him; and it will  appear to be crazy to onlookers, so you may as well start realizing that you are in this faith walk alone.  No one can praise God for you, no one can believe God for you and no one can take God at his word for you.  People can pray for you, stand in agreement with you and even petition God for you but ultimately, you are one person coming before the Lord.  There are so many people killing their time left remaining here on this side of glory allowing others to steal, kill and destroy a life that is no greater than their own.  A common man should not affect you; especially not what they say, think or do.  And for that matter, neither should a great man – operative word here MAN.  Man up is what you must do in the word of God.  Sadly many  feed off of energy, be it good or bad of other people; they don’t like being alone or cast off.  God sustained Elijah by a raven.  God is your strength and your only true source.  Stop looking to others to give you joy when they don’t possess it themselves.  Stop going to deserts looking for a refreshing ocean.  People can only give and do so much; God never runs out of whatever it is that you desire or stand in need of.

Life only through Death

There is abundant life found after the death of our flesh and going our own way.  We must die to ourselves.  We must trust that God will resurrect our life after salvation to receive the promise(s).  It’s so much like God for us to find life-only in death.  Jesus conquered the world and the enemy in death.  It takes faith to believe that God will raise you up when this life has passed away.  It’s the same faith to believe that God will bless you exceeding and abundantly in this life as he has already promised.  How can you believe for a life of resurrection from a natural death but then question God when he says that he will bless you to see his goodness in the land of the living?  Contradiction cannot exist in God’s word or his promises-or our belief in them.  Either you believe it all or all is null and void.  He never said that doubt wouldn't enter in.  He never said that it would be an easy walk, but he did promise to be with us through it all and when we ask for strength when we fall weak, he will give us the strength.  And he has already given each of us a measure of faith.  You must remind yourself constantly and consistently of his word and speak it back to God, not that he will remember, because he already knows; but rather it is for you to declare into the atmosphere and in the presence of God that you believe his every word.  It will build faith in your heart and confidence in your mind that you shall see goodness and dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Personal Trainer

Aren’t you glad that God didn’t let you go?  Even when you wanted to be turned loose?  When God committed to us, he took it seriously; it was a blood-oath that he would never leave us nor forsake us.  And when the waiting at times because unbearable, we just want to throw-up our hands and say “I give”.  Not that we give up, just that we have grown weary of waiting on the promise because it is costing us more than we wanted to give.  Nobody likes to exercise but if you are a person who has exercised or played a sport and felt the fatigue after a good work-out but then also felt rejuvenated once the exertion wore off and was glad about the sacrifice and obedience it took you to follow through. That is how it is walking out your faith.  As when you first start working out, we don t see the results right off but over time, we see that all of our hard work hasn’t been in vain.  The Holy Spirit is our personal trainer whose sole purpose is to encourage, train, motivate and chastise us until we reach our goal.  Don’t despise all the hard work and effort but find it despicable to go through all that you have been through only to not obtain the prize called the promise(s) of God. 

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

Some think that the etymology of the word acronym N.E.W.S. stands for North, East, West and South because information traveled from every corner of the earth. No one truly knows where a thing truly originated; some are still debating to this day - Creation or Evolution? (Psalm 75:6-7) which says, “For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another. God is the progenitor of all things that have and will ever be created and come to be. Today I know that I am currently living in the wrong life, because the visions that I have received through revelation from the Lord are contrary to where I currently am in life, but the life that is for me, I have seen but I have yet to lay my hands upon it in the natural. A true blessing of God must be experienced spiritually first and that fuels our faith and builds our trust in God fully. Believing first, before receiving, takes away all safety nets of relying on “self” to manifest what God has shown us in the spirit. When you come to that place and to that point wherein you know within yourself that there is nowhere else for you to go, no place for you to turn back to; and can only venture forward into your future with only the Holy Spirit as your guide – you will find yourself in the perfect will of God. Trust in (Proverbs 28:20) which says; “A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.” Relish and cherish your relationship with God above all else and he will bless you with the “all else”.

A Sum Total

Call me not keeping up with the times but I am neither New Age nor Neo-anything.  In fact, I would deem myself more of an old-fashioned kind of girl.  I believe that God can – Period.  His word never stated or said that people could not prosper by the works of their own hands; people did so all the time-since the beginning of time.  Take Oprah for instance, with many accomplishments up underneath her belt-she lacks in many ways.  She has never married, no posterity to leave her wealth to, and was raised in a not so sound family life.  All she has is wealth but she is not whole.  Her entire existence has been external accomplishments.  As there were ten lepers healed by Jesus, they all received the healing that they were imploring of him, however, only the one was made whole, which turned back and gave thanks to the Lord.  There is something to be said about giving God all the praise, glory and honor and not delving into what totally belongs to him by taking credit for one self.  Some are satisfied with “a” thing- be it wealth, health, family or prosperity.  However, I seek what only few obtain and that is the fullness of the blessing of the Father in every area of my life.  I do not believe that we have to sacrifice one thing for another because when God blesses, his intent is to bless everything that we are associated with-not just a portion or specific area in our life.  Maybe at different intervals, but when it is all said and done there is a comprehensive, aggregated, and cumulative totality in God, which can only be quantified by God as a complete and blessed life.  Why settle when we can have ALL.