Count It Again

“Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.”

Deuteronomy 8 vs 2

 Recently, I stood in front of my mirror and tried to recall all the changes that have taken place in my life in the last 3 years. Relocating to yet another city by faith, entering grad school, studying at a seminary, receiving my first Master’s degree, writing a book, answering the call to ministry, and growing to become a servant-leader. I was amazed to see how much God had done, how far God had brought me, and how much time has passed. I counted it again.

It felt like more time had passed. I considered the months and how much transitions I have been forced to embrace in these 3 years. Still I counted it again.

It felt like 4 years at first because I was counting time by my age. But really it is almost 3 years since my yes to God for His purpose in my life! Less than 3 years! My whole being has been transformed in less than 3 years! I have been given visions that I alone could never dream of in less than 3 years. I have surmounted unexpected heartbreak and disappointment that may have broken me if it was 3 years ago.

Oh how faithful God has been to me!

It dawned on me that we can often and so easily forget the many great things that God has brought to pass in a short time, so much so taht we begin to doubt if we have moved far at all from where we used to be. But I dare you to count it again friend. Count the days again. Count the victories again. Count the breakthroughs again. Count the healing again. Count the miracles again!

Count it again and see if God has not been true to His word over your life that He will never leave nor forsake you.

Count it again and see if the love of God has not remained consistent and sufficient through the times.

Count it again.

Be encouraged today, that you have come farther than you think, and in less time than you think. You have overcome more than you think in less time than you think. You have grown more than you think in less time than you think. And God is still at work on your behalf.

I pray that your spirit is lifted as you count again the many wonderful things God has done, is doing, and will still do in its appointed time.

“So What Is Your Weakness?” – Part 2

“…So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.”

2 Corinthians 12:7-9 NLT 

 

What is weakness as it pertains to a person’s character or being?

One definition of weakness is the state or condition of lacking strength (physical). Another definition is a quality or feature regarded as a disadvantage or fault. One distinct definition speaks of an inadequate or defective quality.

“Lord, what is my weakness? my weaknesses?”

I heard the Spirit whisper, “What have you been delivered from? What did you once indulge in that opposed the way of God in you and for you?”

It dawned on me that every weakness that I carried with me before I knew the Lord for myself, I no longer carry.

I no longer carry the burden of shame, rebellion, guilt, sexual immorality, reckless speech/thought, impatience, practicality that hindered faith, timidity, vulgar spirit, self-esteem battles, depression, and everything else that encouraged me to indulge in destructive ways out of a need to protect myself so others do not see my weaknesses.

So I ask you today friend, “Is it still a weakness if you no longer indulge in it? Or is it yet a weakness because you are still harboring that which cause you to battle with your identity in Christ?”

I pondered deeply on whether not having a weakness was something to say out loud. Would it not sound arrogant of me to make such a claim? Then I recalled the heart of the Apostle Paul when he penned his letter to the Corinthians (see above scripture context)

The grace of God is sufficient indeed.

I can boast of nothing because I confess daily that my life, my being, my character is a work of amazing grace, a work that God saw fit to do through Christ and with the Spirit of God that sanctifies us daily.

How then can I live in the knowing of Christ’s finished work and still claim inadequacy or defect in my person?

Whose pressure do we succumb to when we feel the need to state our presumed weaknesses? Are we speaking of weaknesses according to what God reveals? or according to what human being say that we are? Why is that thing really a weakness?

 

You may enjoy “Who Told You?” Series

 

I believe that God’s way of showing us his work in us is by challenging us to grow and mature in the Spirit. We are called to repent, forgive, and renew our minds. That is no weakness. Rather, I believe it is the strengthening process of Becoming.

Besides, is God still not the Potter and we the clay? Do we really believe that God makes mistakes in forming our person? Once again, I urge us to consider the things we call weaknesses. Will we find that our weakness is in comparison to others and not to Christ? Would a comparison to Christ not leave us all vulnerable and weak in the hands of God’s grace to do the work of sanctification in us?

So why then do we call our cracks weaknesses? Are we still not in the hands of a merciful Potter who is reshaping, remolding, and re-polishing us daily?

I pray that our Father in heaven continues to do a perfect work in us through the Spirit and helps us to receive the grace of not boasting, but humbly confessing that there is no weakness in the strength of Christ Jesus in us. Amen.

 

“So What Is Your Weakness?” – Part 1

“…So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.”

2 Corinthians 12:7-9 NLT 

 

“So what is your weakness?”

A dear sister in Christ asked me this profound question as we dined over good food and awesome conversation. At first I stopped, because I was not sure how to answer the question.

I thought in my head, “weakness as in a flaw in my character that I know of? According to others? Or a way I know I fall short according to what I believe God expects of me and has called me to in the name of Christ?”

In my silence, my sister expanded her inquiry and (at least from what I recall in the conversation) referred to a weakness, a weak point where I know the enemy can use as an opening…

I did not let her finish and proceeded to explaining what areas I naturally worry about when it comes to weak points that the enemy has used to torment me recently.

I answered, “Family. My family is certainly a weak point…” As I proceeded to break down the things I worry about when it comes to my loved ones, my sis interrupted again to redirect my response…

“…But what is YOUR weakness?”

Then it dawned on me that I had misinterpreted her question. I thought of weakness as in a place of vulnerability that the enemy has attempted to use to cause me to worry and fret and even lack faith in sometimes. But she was referring to a place in me I knew I fell short that most people would probably not guess without me telling them myself.

I went on to tell my sis of the guilt that lingered and occasionally lingers about the harm I caused others when I was young and ignorant of the impact of my actions. I also shared the guilt about the person I was when brokenness, anger, un-forgiveness, and disappointment ruled my heart.

At the end of my response, my lovely dinner companion was touched and appreciated my willingness to share deeper parts of my past with her. We embraced at the end of dinner and talked about the next time we can sit and speak again in love and in truth about many matters.

It was after I reached home that the Spirit of God whispered some truths to me that I did not readily recall during dinner…

“What is my weakness, Lord?”

CLICK HERE TO FINISH READING.

We Are Not Without Comfort

 “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

John 14:26-27

 

Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he reminded his disciples that they would not be left orphaned or without comfort.

I cannot think of a time when we have needed more comfort than these times that we are living in. Rising suicide rates, rising mass shootings, rising divorce rates, rising fear, rising anger, rising uncertainty, and rising numbers of those who do not yet believe in Jesus Christ.

We live in a time of fearful reality that threatens to harden our hearts or infuriate us to vengefully react and create bigger problems than solutions.

For anyone who dares to cling to the hope in Jesus Christ, there is grace to be reminded that we are not without comfort. Jesus Christ told us that he overcame the world. We serve a Lord and Savior who is not oblivious or dismissive of our great pain and wounds of our gruesome reality.

We are not without comfort.

We do not have all the answers. In fact, we have more and more questions than we have answers. We do not have a blueprint of what the next moment holds not to even consider what tomorrow will hold. There is uncertainty everywhere around us. Still, we are not without comfort.

Friend, the Word of God remains faithful as God himself. The power and authority of God has been proven time and time again in different ways throughout our life. Indeed, we serve a good, good father, a merciful father, a gracious father, a merciful father, a loving father, a promise-keeping father, a way-making father, a miracle-working father, a mind-renewing father, a heart-cleansing father, a chain-breaking father, a compassionate father, who has not left us by ourselves to endure the pain and suffering of this unpredictable world. In this lies our comfort.

Be reminded today, that we have been given a gift of comfort by the God of comfort, who reached down from heaven in the Person of Jesus Christ and left us with the Person of the Holy Spirit after Christ’s resurrection. So we know, there is nothing that is outside the power and authority of God. In this, lies our comfort.

God sees all and knows all and most importantly as it pertains to our present groans, God, through the Holy Spirit is a God of all comfort. We are not without comfort in Jesus name. Amen.

Sight Check – How Do You See?

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.”

Matthew 6:22 

I try to remember to look up or ahead when I am walking to see everything possible. When I drive, I can only look forward. I can only see what is before me. Limited as it is, I see. But it is not the full picture. In fact, the weather or time of the day all affect not what I see but how I see.

I gave that example to better reflect on how critical it is that we assess not just what we see, but first “how” we see the world before us.

As believers in a world that tends to try to separate itself from the Creator, there are dimensions that we are graced to perceive beyond this reality. Faith elevates how we see things and people and situations. Hope dissects how we see a worrisome situation. But for many of us, this is easier said than done.

Oh, the agony of wanting to believe when nothing looks worthy of our faith!

We want to believe the best in people. We want to hope for the best in life because of the goodness of God. We want to see the possibilities in a dire situation in a positive way. That is just what faith does – it affects and almost demands “how” you see the world.

But too often we forget.

Too often, we become distracted by the distortions of this world and its systems and cultures. We forget the “how” from time to time and focus on the what. Seeing becomes a matter of what we see rather than how we see what we see.

The how represents the perspective of our understanding and frame of seeing. The scripture above emphasizes the power of our sight not for what we see but for how we see it. It is referring to the frame in which we see through, that is beyond the physical eyes.

Just as we see different in the dark and in the sunlight, in light of Resurrection Sunday, the Spirit of God is reminding us that the health of our eyes depends on the source of our perspective.

Do you still seek the Lord for wisdom in ALL things?

Is your faith and your hope in God still backing up all the what you see? Or has the pressures and tribulations of this day and age gotten a hold of your sight?

The Lord wanted me to remind us today that it is time for a spiritual sight check.

CLICK TO READ MORE ABOUT VISION .

Especially in this marvelous week of Easter, in this season of death and Resurrection, we are called to examine the health of our eyes that is the lamp of our body.

Friend, may I ask that you consider how you see all that you see? How do you see your life? your money? your spouse or partner? your family? your church? your career? your worth? your purpose? and your being?

HOW do you see it all? With what lenses do you perceive the meaning of what you have been given to steward as a child of God?

As we seek the Lord for new understanding and seeing in new dimensions of faith and trials, I pray for you as I pray for me too. I pray that the Lord sends a divine breeze to cast away the blurriness before us and that the eyes of our understanding are enlightened in Jesus Name. Amen.

Your Yes Carries Weight!

“A man’s gift makes room for him and brings him before great men.” 

Proverbs 18:16

We all have great gifts. God has created all of creation with distinct gifts that is to bless the world, a gift that is to reflect the glory of God.

Did you know that your gift too is an expression of the One who created you in His image?

We live in a society where one’s gift is often used to gain fame or money or is used to negotiate personal pleasures and enjoyment. But could it be that your gift is supposed to do so much more?

Could it be that your gift is supposed to bring life in this world?

Could it be that your gift is supposed to ignite a shift in this world?

Could it be that your gift is supposed to kindle a fire within souls?

Could it be, that your gift, is so much more than its function?

Perhaps that is why we cannot give our yes so freely and without intuition. Be reminded today that your yes carries weight!

Because you have the power of the living God on the inside of you, because your lungs carry the breath of an Almighty God, the Creator of heaven and earth, your yes carries weight!

What have you said Yes to lately? And Why?

Friend,  I dare you to ponder on your most recent agreements. I dare you to question the Yes that you have given everything that has so easily enticed you for pleasure sake.

If your Yes to God, stirred up Satan and his demons to wage war at you from all sides, if your Yes to God broke generational chains and disrupted hell’s plans, if your Yes alerted heaven that another warrior has heed the call for the kingdom, how can your Yes to anything else not carry so much weight?!

Friend, allow me to remind you today that your agreement means everything to God! Especially when it comes to your gifts.

There is a mission assigned to the gifts you carry. There is a place and time, a perfect place and time that is to reveal your gift for the glory of God and God only and I must tell you, that nothing else will do.

No matter how good it feels, if you have said yes with your gift to something or someone that is not glorifying the Gift-giver who has pre-ordained the gift to be brought inf front of great men, the Spirit of God is speaking to you.

It says look again before saying Yes.

I pray for you as I pray for me too on today. May the God of our gifts, realign our senses along with our hearts to bring our gifts before God so that He may bring us before great men for His glory in Jesus name. Amen.

 

 

Why Not Expect Prosperity?

image: google images

“For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11

 

I wrote my last post exactly six months ago today and I am grateful to return to it.

God is faithful.

It is now February and the year is flying as quick as I expected but recently, I had to sit with God to remind me what His vision for me was. It is often too easy to forget the amazing image of prosperity that faith gives us as we hope in the Lord.

I must admit, I have forgotten. Even now as I blog, I am waiting on God to put the pieces of that prosperous future image back in my mind.

Indeed, you must see it to believe it.

What is faith if we have nothing in mind of the evidence to be seen? Seeing in the spiritual must happen in order for hope to take root in our hearts as we wait on the Lord on His promise.

So I sat with God for a while today.

I asked Him to remind me again, what I am supposed to envision when I think of my future. In this exercise, it occurred to me that I had become accustomed to the rigid idea of numbering my days so much so that I stopped seeing what was ahead.

I think sometimes we are subconsciously easily crippled by the idea of unexpected disappointment or even tragedy that we relent on the vision of a future not too far from now. I recognized that misplacement of faith today. I wonder if you have been setting aside a hope for the future because you are afraid it may not happen or that it seems too far away.

Faith tells us to wait expectantly. Faith decrees that we pray without ceasing. Faith says to hope in the Lord. But enduring the present times and a heart of perseverance is no easy feat.

That is why we cannot shy away from coming to God as much times as it takes, conversing with God, and pleading that His Spirit continues to fill us up with the hope and expectancy that our faith deserves and that our future needs.

So why not expect prosperity tomorrow? And the day after that? and the day after that?

Why not seek God to reconstruct the future that He promised so we may yet hope for it as we walk toward it?

I pray for you as I pray for myself today. May the Lord of hope continue to fill your mind with the prosperous visions and words of goodness that you need to keep faith alive. I speak life onto the dead bones of our hope and joy in expectancy in the name of Jesus. Amen.

When Disappointment Becomes Despair – II

“We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.”

2 Corinthians 4:8

I am confident that the Lord sees our hearts because His word in Proverbs 13:12 proclaim that, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”

So what happens when you feel like your hope is deferred?

How do you faithfully respond when the eagerness and faithfulness to cling to a word that God has given you is seen as delayed from where you stand?

What do you do when your own minds starts to wage war against you and call you crazy for believing in the promise in the first place?

When you have done all you can, when you have done your best in being patient, when you have mastered worship as a response to the pain of waiting, and still your circumstances portray everything unlikely to the promise of God, then what?

Does the heart then not become sick? Does disappointment not then become despair? Does your fleeting hope then not make you so grievous that you dare to question the intent of God when He gave you the desire in the first place???

Believe me when I say I stand with you in that place of confusion, uncertainty, and tiredness.

But we cannot stay there!

We must not stay there!

By the power of the living Christ, WE WILL NOT REMAIN IN DESPAIR in Jesus name!!!

Because that is not what God promised. That is not what God called us to. That is certainly not what God has brought us this far to do.

I confess that these last few days felt like hell. I felt such a grieving distance from God that it pained me to pray and utter faithful words like I did when the promise was first revealed to me. But like a refreshing rain, the Holy Spirit poured into me in my hour of hopelessness.

When I was about to give up, when I was about to tap out, when I was about to release my hope completely and claim defeat over this word, God turned ME around. God shifted something in me and called me to decide.

Friend, the only thing between your disappointment and your despair is your decision to change your mind about how you see the disappointment in the first place.

No, it may not look anything like the promise. No it may not feel like your faith is strong enough to withstand the process to the promise. But I am here to remind you that God is not man that HE should lie. God told you He would. He promised you something. He said He would do it, so HE will do it.

IN FACT, IT IS ALREADY DONE!

For we serve a God who is timeless, a God who WAS, IS, AND IS TO COME. So if you got a word that is to come, know that it is already done and you are only yet to see it manifest.

I am praying for you as I am praying for myself, may the Lord renew our minds today. May our hope be renewed and our confidence strengthened in our mighty God who has never failed. You can count on God’s word! He has done it before and we will see Him do it again, Only bigger than the last time in Jesus name. Amen!

When Disappointment Becomes Despair – I

“We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.”

2 Corinthians 4:8

I cannot begin to name all the reasons that has kept me from posting for over 3 months. I cannot begin to count the many battles fought, lost, and fought again till won to be here in this present hour. But to God be the glory who fights our battles even when we are too stubborn to let go of the reins.

Despair is defined as the complete loss or absence of hope.

For any believer to find themselves in a place of despair is nothing to joke about or skid over. It is serious business when you reach a place in your journey, a time in your life, a realm in your walk of faith, that dares you to look God in the eyes and say that you do not believe the promise anymore.

I don’t know about you but for me, to despair feels like an agonizing breach of contract with God. It is a state of mind that abruptly rips apart the intimacy between me and God because I confess that I no longer have confidence in what God said to me.

I was in that place these past few days and I am still recovering from the war it was to fight back the strongholds that tried to keep me there.

It honestly began with a subtle disappointment. Then that disappointment reminded me of another disappointment over the same promise, then another fell in line, and then another, and before I knew it, I was immobile in my house under the heavy weight of despair.

See the thing about hoping on the word of God is that it necessitates expectation. Hope stirs up in you a distinct level of expectation from God where you look for the promise everywhere, every-time. Hope will do that to you.

Hope will have you stretching all your limitations and believing in God for an unseen type of miracle.

But what happens when your hope starts to feel the weight of waiting???

FINISH HERE!

Are You All In???

 “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”

Matthew 19:29

 Surrender. Serve. Sacrifice. These are words that I am becoming more familiar with daily.

I used to think these words meant the same things. I used to believe that serving God in some capacity was the same as surrender and sacrifice. I was wrong.

Although to serve, surrender, and sacrifice go hand in hand in the walk of faith, each act is a choice, a hard choice, and not everyone chose them all. And for those who choose them all, they do not choose them all all the time.

I have been graced to choose them all. And I must admit, it is painful.

I surrendered my heart to Christ when I got baptized, but DAILY, I fight myself to surrender my life again each new day. I choose to serve God but I don’t always know what sacrifices would be required in my service.

So the question comes, “Are you all in?”

If you were asked today, in your walk with God,”Are you all in?” How easy would it be to answer yes or no?

I am finding out what it means to be all in. And I must confess, it is scary to be ALL IN.

When every thing you think, say, feel, and do, goes through a filtering process by the Spirit of God in you, submits to the wisdom of the Spirit and not the flesh, when you do not permit yourself to act without the permission of the Holy Spirit, when discernment becomes a necessary language to learn, when God’s way and Word is no longer just an option but the only option EVERY TIME, that is what it means for me to be ALL IN.

It is scary to serve God with a surrendered will and a heart willing to sacrifice everything that means anything to me for God’s will to be done. It is scary, painful, and demanding.

Still, I say Yes. I have to say Yes. I need to say Yes. Destiny requires that I SAY YES and continue to say Yes.

I realize that no matter what I think it will look like or how uncertain I am about the unfamiliar road  that Faith will lead me on, God is still good and He holds my future in His loving, mighty hands.

God is not a gamble nor a risky venture, HE IS A GOD OF ASSURANCE!

All His promises are Yes and Amen, so why wouldn’t I be all in?

When I consider the depth of giving my life to God to do as He pleases with my gifts, my heart, my mind, my soul, and my body, for His glory, I am humbled to even have the choice to say Yes.

I wonder today if you too are at a junction when you have to ask yourself what it means to be all in. I wonder if you are considering the cost of Faith and the cost of hoping in God when nothing you see looks like the promises of God.

Can you dare to say Yes even when you are alone in your faith?

Can you dare to say Yes even with the tears rolling down your face?

Can you dare to say Yes even when your body is failing you and you feel weakened in your bones?

Friend, Are you all in? If you are all in, are you staying all in?

I pray for you today. I pray a renewal of mind and soul as you seek the Spirit of God for a worthy answer to heaven’s question. I pray that you are led in the truth and strength of Christ to be all in with God as He alone takes you from glory to glory to glory in Jesus name. Amen.