Remember The Time...

Remember The Time…

Having been through the process of purchasing a home I have realized one thing that sticks out the most to me… and that was that it was more fun looking and visiting the model homes or viewing the potential residences more so than the actual purchase itself.  The purchase was the finality of the blessing at-hand, however, the enjoyment was found in the “what if’s?” and the “possibilities” of what could be.  You get to see more and experience more by just simply looking…   Are we looking for God to do anything anymore??

Remember what the best part is…  Learn to fall in love with the process – the process gives and provides the blessing. 

The Lord’s Prayer is a model - that is descriptive of how we should reverence God as our Father… Model prayers, model planes, model homes – help us to see what can be and that which is possible.

If a model-scale or mock-up can be built or constructed, then realistically, it can be duplicated and implemented – Same with God.

We want all the memories we can with others and loved ones but the most important is to reverence God in our process.  Faith is found in remembrance.  Remember the times in God because they are what will see you through and bring you into the Land of Promise that God says already exist.

World View...

World View…

If we view a globe of the world, we have to take the full expanse via a flat map; just viewing the globe itself would leave us only seeing a portion at a time or a spin. 

Our lives are too big to view all at once even though we try our hardest to see where it is that God is taking us.  And to attempt to see all that God has for us is sort of insulting to him, to think that we would be able to encompass all that He is and is doing on our behalf.

It’s better than a jigsaw puzzle because unlike with a puzzle,  only a certain piece is designed to fit into one certain space without any room for variances; unlike with God, He can make all things work out for our good; what once didn’t fit now pops into place seamlessly as though it had always been purposed for that position.

The more that we love God as He wants and instructs us how he wants to be loved, the more that He reveals His love for us.  We all say that we just want to be loved but that isn’t the true task at hand, the true task is to find someone who loves us the way that we want to be loved.  God is no different.  If I tell you and you still choose to do it your way, then do you really want to love and to please me?

When someone has our heart there is nothing that we wouldn’t do for them.  Same goes for God the Father. 

Allow God to bring into focus what has already been in existence.  Just as we gaze upon the view on the globe of the United States of America and South America, we know that the Far East and down to the Antarctica’s also exist; and just because we cannot see it all on the map doesn’t negate the fact that they are there.

Trust God that what he promises us is there and does exist and believe that you will see it entirely in its full scope.  There is more than the world we know exist and there is also more to see to what God can accomplish us to both see and to do.  

Think Different...

Think Different…

Get how you think that God ought to be out of your head and allow God to be God; and He will show you who He is himself.  He is God and can do all things and with that being established as our foundation first then we can begin to build by first dissecting that He is many things to us but perpetually is our God.

At times He is a healer, at times He is provider, at times He is way maker, at times He is our counselor and there are many other attributes that would run off of this page.  He is not always the same to us but in all ways… We get it – He is God.

Now take that same logic and juxtapose it to how we see our relationships.  The person that we are married to or dating isn't God, nor are they all the man or woman that we would like for them to be at any given time.  Some men aren't breadwinners; however, they provide non-monetized support that is priceless to a woman who already has enough on her plate of being a woman. 

Allow people to be who they are in our lives without us attempting to define who they are within the confines of our finite minds; and trust God who is infinite to divinely give to us and reveal those needed attributes within that special person.

A person is only that… a person - that is until God the Potter gets done with both them and us.  Get your hands off the clay and allow God to mold them and us into who they need us to be and for us to be to them.

If all you think that a man is supposed to do is provide; and that love can only be shown monetarily, then that maybe all that you get and in doing so, miss out on all the etcetera and such and such that God has instilled inside of your mate to bless you beyond measure.  What’s the point of the money and not having anyone to share it with?

God knows what till death do us part really entails.  Just as we look forward to eternity in and with him and to be blessed both now here on earth and in Heaven; we should be able to look that same joy both on earth in this life of coupledom.

God never intended for us to be miserable as we sojourn this life; it’s not good for man to be alone.  A husband or wife should be a blessing, not a burden; and they should add to the blessings of this life and not drain us of the life God intended for us to have.

Think Different.  Think as God would have you to view life and not a skewed, by narrowing how good God wants to be in your life through the love. 

I don’t want God only for what He has for me or his riches; I want God because of who He is.  Love your partner for who they and not what they can do for you; and as the unwavering love of God pours out, so will that love from your partner.

Pastor Appreciation???

Pastor Appreciation???

To hear him say all the things that I need my spouse or significant other to spout – A word of encouragement, dispensed at the appropriate time;  to see a man appear to walk upright in the sight of God and circumspectly.  And to hear what thus saith the Lord to me – personally (A hookup).

We both men and women seek him out – The Pastor.  He is the closest thing in our eyes to God but to women more so apparently than me but for a different reason altogether.  Our motive is the same as it was in the Garden of Eden; to seek God for ourselves. 

God gave us the instruction in His word but we keep getting it out of order.  Christ, Man, Wife and children; and if the man loves Christ, that the flow of blessing should reciprocate and be dispensed as needed throughout the family and beyond.

As women we run to God’s house, as we should but often time we are beguiled by wanting to seek out knowledge that wasn't necessarily for us; knowing too much for our own good can be just as detrimental as not knowing enough.

Eve corrupted the entire way of life by wanting to get something that wasn't particularly meant for her or Adam. 

Just think what could have come of them and our world had she just followed what God had said…  And what could have been should Adam had man’d-up…

The same thing is going on in today’s church.  We are in the right place, in God’s house but what are we telling our men, what are we encouraging them to do, that could benefit and bless us or curse and expel us from the presence and blessings of God?

We keep getting God’s directives out of order and we know that He is the God of decency and order.

When I see people in the congregation gathered in one and needing to be on the same accord for the corporate blessing and they sit or chat during praise and worship but scamper and jump to their feet when the Pastor enters or hits the stage; as if this was some type of performance; instead of the place where we come to meet, greet, praise and give honor to our God because all that we do is supposedly in honor of who he is, and the reason for all that takes place from the ushering, parking lot to the preaching, yet we find ourselves missing the mark of the high calling because God’s honor is being giving elsewhere.

If we as women are going to fill the pews in an abnormally high ratio versus that of the men, then shouldn't the results that we seek be seen and reaped?  The Pastor is only but one man and most of the time is he has his own wife and family.

Our goal should be to come to God’s house for the overflow of what we are already receiving from home but in many instances that isn't the case. 

The Pastor is sent because he was called to preach the word of God, not to be our surrogate husbands, muses or secret lovers because many women flock to the church and secretly think that they are married to the man and no longer looking for a man of their own; becoming pseudo Nuns – married to God – The Pastor.

There is such a thing as Pastor Appreciation but let’s keep it in the right perspective - God first.  Honor God.

Work, Work, Work, Work, Work...

Work, Work, Work, Work, Work…

There is an old adage that says, “If you find something that you love to do, you’ll never work another day in your life”…

The absolute hardest work that you will ever do is Pray.  If you don’t agree then you aren't praying for anything and you don’t want to see God work in your life. 

There is work and then there is prayer…  You can work without prayer and you may accomplish certain goals but prayer is a lifestyle, not a career or thing to clock in and out of; prayer is a gig that once you start, you don’t retreat from – that is, if you plan on being successful and live a fulfilled life.  There is living but then there is a life in God that we seek that blesses exponentially; it fills every crevice of our lives until we want no more.  His word mandate that’s what those of us who keep our hope in him can expect. 

Prayer is hard simply because we have to do it in faith that God will be God.  Because we don’t know how he will work-out our lives, we just trust him to cause all things to work together for our good for his name sake; not ours (not our reputation, etc.) but his.  He backs up his own word and those of us who speak his word in authority vested to us by Jesus Christ.

The work is indeed hard but ever-so rewarding; especially when you have tasted his goodness before; it’s insatiable and can never be satisfied in this life.  Total dependency on God is vulnerability with benefits. 

If you had a spouse that said to you, “You don’t have to work any longer if you don’t want to, I’ll take care of you”, most if not all, would have put the notice in a month ago already.  You would never doubt that your necessities and way of life to fall off.  Your only guarantee would be the word of your requited love; even though people are only people, and fail us on a daily basis – yes, included are those that we love and love us.

God’s word is his bond; it’s who he is and he doesn't go back on them for his name’s sake.  To know what he said, we have to engross and familiarize ourselves with his promises.  We cannot lay claim to that which we aren't aware exist. 

If and when you come to the point and place where you think that another prayer won’t change your situation or that you are all prayed-out; find the strength in the Lord, not your own – to pray again, and again and again until you realize that prayer is your only weapon of warfare; and that to leave it is to leave the hedge of God and you are left exposed and vulnerable to your own worst enemy; which is to go at this life alone sans the guidance, protection and provision of God.

Pray until it no longer feels like work.  

Put Some Respeck On It! Blood, Sweat and 40 Years...

Put Some Respek On It! Blood, Sweat and 40 Years…

When we ask that time to be our friend, what we are really asking is for God to be our friend.  We spew off when quoting or mentioning time as though time doesn't matter.  All we have in our duration as sojourners of the faith while on this earth is our time - in years. 

Anything that is to be takes time.  Gestation takes time – to even exist.  Harvest time from seed time, takes time.  A wound takes time to heal.  Broken hearts take time to mend; to get from here to there – takes time.  A fruitful relationship with God – takes time.  Young and full of vigor to geriatric years – takes time. And from one generation to the next is summed up as a forty-year year span – thus it takes time.

We spout off forty-years in the desert when we mention the lost generation of Israel as if it were nothing.  Me and most of my contemporaries are now well into our forties and every year has been a journey and hard-fought battle that has taken many tolls and cost me dearly; they haven’t been easy, nor were they meant to be… It’s called Life… Simplified into – Years….

Many of us haven’t seen not nearly what we hoped we would as we sashayed across the stage accepting our diplomas twenty plus years ago when we graduated and were ready to take on the world.  Now forty years are up under our belts – literally… And what do many of us have to show for it?  Many just have Blood, Sweat and forty years and nothing more to show from it.  If we are walking with God, shouldn't there be some sign?

We put off what we can believe for today.  And in my humble opinion, it costs us our today and tomorrow.  Now Faith is all that I will say in my own defense.

When Hannah prayed and waited for Samuel, we can feel her excruciating torment via the written word.  As David endured the wait for his inheritance of the throne it took over twenty years. The woman with the issue of blood persevered twelve years to receive deliverance from her bondage.  Joshua and Caleb suffered forty years past their prime and time, to enter into the Promise Land that they never doubted they could possess.  As the man waited thirty-eight years by the pool of Siloam to be made whole. When Jesus dropped blood as sweat, we couldn't imagine his passion or suffering on our behalf. And as Christ braved death, burial and the Resurrection; and countless others, we should never disrespect what it takes to get what God has for us.  It takes time for great blessings to manifest themselves.

Years are all that we can barter for or with.  Thankfully, our God is always ahead of us because time has to obey his trump card of eternity.

The manipulation of time can only be done by God.  So put some Respeck on his name!

Bills, Bills, Bills...

Bills, Bills, Bills…

Have you? Can you? Were you ever able to see passed a bill due notice into your destiny?  It’s hard to fathom isn't it, that day wherein you wake up and the life that you once knew is no longer?  Bills will always come due but they don’t rest atop your to-do list.

Honestly, I don’t have an inkling of what that could possibly feel like.  Bills have been a priority since before I was born because they were a priority in the life of my parents and their parents and their parents before them.  No wonder we cannot see the forest for the trees… and money sure doesn't fall from them.

Is it just me and do I stand alone in wanting to see God do something that previous generations weren't privy to see?  Like seeing the first black President, never having believed that I would, not to mention past generations?  I want to see my faith reward me greatly and openly, not just for gifts and rewards sake but for others to witness the strength and mighty works of my God, so that they too would believe on him; it’s all that I have that has any value to me or anyone else for that matter. 

My hopes are high and my expectation vast.  Why wouldn't they be when I believe in the God of the Promise?  It’s more than a prayer of monetary blessings but a prayer to see the hand of God move in my favor and on my behalf; that is the greatest blessing of them all because it fuels my faith for what lies next.  Life doesn't stop after monetary gain, and I am sure of one thing, that it just begins; and a new test will soon ensue.

Faith is a process.  I refuse to die the way that I was born.  I refuse to get what others that share in my similar circumstance have always gotten.  I refuse to believe that I can trust God and not be blessed.  I refuse to believe that God isn't the God of his word.  I refuse to end-up in God the same as I started out.

I probably forfeited some of my blessings from doubt or lack of trust but I still believe that God can restore unto me all the years that the cankerworm, the palmerworm and the locust chewed to bits and pieces.  

Just Believe... The King of Judges will see you now.

Just Believe…  The King of Judges will see you now.

Lord,

     Can I come through into thy gates to seek your presence?  Thank you.  Praise your Holy Name.  May I approach your courts Lord?  Hallelujah to your Holy Name.  I am back once again asking that you unlock my mind and vision, as well as unblock the blessings that you have already preordained over my life. 

I can feel it, that thought, that place wherein I finally breakthrough into what you have placed inside of my heart.  I don’t know what it is exactly… I am a woman… I guess I will know it when I see it. 

I can smell it, darn near taste it.  The bespoke of it feels so comfortably familiar I would have said that I have experienced it already but I know that I haven’t, possibly in a dream, where I was as close to it in the spirit as I can come because in the spirit great things are possible.

The more I want to cast a shadow of doubt that the desires of my heart couldn't be anymore fulfilled, the more my spirit litigates and defends to the enemy of my soul – the doubt. It tells it that the evidence may seem circumstantial but legal discovery has me favored to do the impossible because the Judge in my case is just, not fair – Favor Isn't Fair…

Jesus you are my advocate, the standard of all law and how it should be adjudicated concerning my life.  I am guilty, this I know but you took the penalty and said that I could go free and that my rights have been restored to expect and to lay claim to all that had been stored up and kept me from accessing all that you have duly noted in your word was my inheritance.

All I know is that I was brought to this doorway and for a while now it has been closed up shut; but I know that access into where it is that I want to be granted entrance is so great and of exclusive company that I know that there is no turning back or retreating – Where am I to go?  What is there back from whence I traveled to have court with the King?  I know nothing that I want Lord.  I will stay here and beat upon the door of your heart until I hear you say; “Let her in” “Open the door for her, for I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me”. 

Yes Lord, you will find faith in me on this earth.  Your admonishment has been to me all throughout your word – “Just Believe”, and that’s just what I am doing.  Thank you for seeing me your honor, hearing my case and ruling in my favor.  All the praise, glory and honor belong to you and to you alone.

Believe In...

Believe In…

Believe in Egypt…

Believe in the Wilderness…

Believe in The Promised Land…

And in that order… As you go through, from faith to Faith and from glory to Glory…

Don't Be Silly Girl...

Don’t Be Silly Girl…

If the truth be told there were some silly women in the Bible; and all I am recommending is that neither you nor I be one of them. 

As women we wield much power but power in the wrong hands or used inappropriately, can cause more harm than the helpful good that we were to attribute to the subduing and taking dominion; and replenishing the earth…

What are you saying to your man? What are you saying to your children? What are you saying to the world in and around you? 

Mary the Mother of Christ was young but mature.  She could have easily denied the gift being offered to her but she spoke with a heart that chose to follow after God and to please Him.  Same as Ruth and Esther both have books for their namesake in the book of all books – the Bible because they chose God.

Our power isn't the triangular shaped pie slice betwixt our thighs… It might work on Joe Schmo for a while or a lifetime but God knows that it was good when he made it, but he’s not concerned with what your mama gave you; but rather what he can do through you and not just in a nine month stint… We are more than just to be fruitful and to multiply.

Rachel was sought after for 14 years and loved dearly by the Jacob … but she wasn't mentioned much… sort of a baby-mama.  The Harlot was rewarded for her heroism in the Hall of Fame of the Faith….

Sarah was the wife to the patriarch of our faith Abraham, but what she was known mostly for was her silliness… laughing while she was eavesdropping on her own blessing… and if you know her story, she kept on taking actions into her own hands instead of seeking God for direction.

They were both Matriarchs and the helpmeet to two of the greatest men to be in the lineage of our Christ but weren't significant enough to be recognized for their participation in the growing of the faith.

Our responsibility as women goes a lot further than the kitchen and the bedroom.  Before there was a bedroom, there was a garden and there was Eve.

It’s not about age because it truly is just a number… God can use any of us, at any age; we just need to not be too silly and laugh when it’s time to be taken seriously and not to manipulative to get us kicked out for good.  It’s time to stop being silly and start being about our Father’s business as wives, mothers, sisters, and word-givers…

Loose Lips Sinks Ships... Don't Be Careless... A Moment on the Lips...

Loose Lips Sinks Ships… Don’t Be Careless… A Moment on the Lips…

A word spoken… even only momentarily can leave an indelible impression and an unknowingly and unwittingly a bad taste in someone’s mouth and not only a displeasurable taste but an exasperated spirit… This faith walk isn't for the faint of heart but a made up mind.

God does have a monetary system and it has two sources of currency – Tithe and Faith! 

People jumped aboard the prosperity train and didn't realize the cost of the ticket and the Pastors and Preachers should have told them, “People Get Ready!”  You don’t need a ticket to get on board but once you are a passenger, God is the conductor and he decides the destination and the timing.  They spoke loosely with statements of “Speak it into existence” and “Name it and claim it” all of those things are true and possible for them that believe; and the movement in God shifted, but they failed to issue the disclaimer of Mo’ is equivalent to Mo’ problems.  It’s not always Mo’ money… Mo’ of God will bring Mo’ issues to contend with in order that faith is preserved and increased to balance out the Mo’ that we receive.

Prosperity can be purchased but it’s a cost that many would choose rather not to pay because the cost is high.  Prosperity is falling and getting back up.  Prosperity is trying and failing.  Prosperity is trusting God when you can’t see or trace him.  Prosperity is paying tithes when it seems counter-intuitive to pay out of not enough.  Prosperity is pressing your way when there appears to be no way out this time.  Prosperity is saying God, “Your will be done”.  Prosperity is submitting our will to God’s.  Prosperity is having a heart of forgiveness towards the one that has done you the worst.  Prosperity is praising God on your worst day, just as hard as your best day.  Prosperity is a process…

It was only a few Sunday services, a moment on the lips of the congregation as they repeated after the Angel of the Church, but to not warn the people of the impending dangers was careless.

An armada of ships sailed with hopes and aspirations of God doing for them as the Pastor preached “You’ll have houses you didn't build and vineyards you didn't plant”, but they began to take on water soon after embarking because a faith full of holes and not pitched within and without with the sealing word of God will slowly begin to sink and now they are lost at sea because of carelessly chartered doctrine.

Yes we should venture boldly in the pursuit of God and those things that he has promised us in his Word, but to be irresponsible in our approach and our word selection can mean all the difference in safe travels or perilous times.

A word is breathed and spoken, yet is an unseen weapon or curse.  Prison is an experience of many from whom a simple word spoken by a judge ensconced behind a mahogany desk and draped in a black robe spoke life or death over an individual.  Why can’t we see that our God has that same and even greater power to speak the same over us?  He above all should be respected for his Word.

Remember to honor God with all of your days offering up to him Prayers and Praise… Enter into his gates with Thanksgiving and into his courts with Praise!  You can have all the money in the world and the currency won’t get you into Heaven’s Gate.  Don’t leave this home on earth without it!