Category: The Believer’s Battle

“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?”

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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.

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!

Confidence In God – part 2

“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.”

Hebrews 10:35

 Friend, Christ is our CONFIDENCE!

We can have CONFIDENCE in God because He gave us Christ! If we believe in Christ, if we believe that He is in us, then we believe that He that resurrected after death, that defied EVERY odds, that conquered every impossibility, that defied ALL limitations, HE, THAT CHRIST is in me and you!

This is our CONFIDENCE.

Our CONFIDENCE in God is the CONFIDENCE in us as believers.

 That is why man cannot take it away from us. That is why the situation cannot take it away from you. Your confidence is yours to give away or throw away. So what have you done with yours?

Better yet, how do we keep or take back our confidence if we have lost it?

The Word says to look back for a moment. Look back and remember where you were. Look back and recollect what God has brought you out of time and time again. Look back on the you that was when you did not know Christ. Look back and remember what grace and God’s power has enabled you to do to push through to this place you are in now.

Now ask yourself, do you not serve a faithful God who has been mighty to save over and over and over and over again?

Ask yourself, is HE not worthy to be praised even in your current predicament?

Friend, your CONFIDENCE in God is your reminder that HE that did it back then can and will do it again. He that got you out of that one will get you out of this one. HE that did this, can do that. HE that created the world can create a new opportunity, a new perspective, a new heart of worship, a new way!

Take the limits off of God! HE can do anything! We know that HE can because HE already did! Christ already came down! Heaven already appointed you for your calling and you need your CONFIDENCE in God to reach it.

I pray for you as I pray for me.

May your confidence begin to come back to you now! May your CONFIDENCE in God cause you to trample upon doubts and the enemy’s lies. And may your conscience be renewed in righteousness again in Jesus name. Amen.

Confidence In God – part 1

“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.”

Hebrews 10:35

As a child, many of us were told to be confident in ourselves, to believe in ourselves and our ability to do anything we put our minds to.

Childhood naivete does not yet receive the fullness of those messages. Then we learn what faith is. We learn who Christ Is. We grow and learn who God Is. We become familiar with the Holy Spirit of God. We become confident in the knowing of our Father, the Creator.

Then life happens, so we lose confidence.

Friend, God said to get your confidence back! Not the confidence that relies on your abilities, your flesh, and your capacity, but the confidence in HIM!

Are you confident in God?

I know many of us believe in God and we believe that He can do anything, but are you CONFIDENT in God?

When the situation looks as bad as it does, and your heart is as broken as it is, and you are as confused as you are, are you CONFIDENT in God?

When the bills are more than the money, and the foes are more than friends, or the friends turn out to be the foes, are you CONFIDENT in God?

When the deal does not go through, and the relationship ends, and the lying voices come against you to tell you that you were never good enough, are you CONFIDENT in God?

I know all too well how easy it is to lose confidence in the gap between who you are and who you are called to be. I am in that gap now. That gap that separates what God promised and when the promise is in your hands.

But as the scripture above reads, we are not to throw away our confidence. We are not to give control of it to the current dilemma or even the past. Friend, do you know that your confidence is not in the hands of man, but inside of you???

FINISH READING HERE

Stop Forgetting That God Remembers

“Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you…”

Deuteronomy 4:23

When I was younger, there was an old African Hymn at my church that urged God to remember us in our ‘lack’ and to remember HIS promises to us. Although the hymn was often sung as worship, looking back now, I wonder if God chuckles at our prayers that seek HIM to remember us.

As if God could ever forget His own.

Friend, God remembers all. Aren’t we the ones who continue to forget His word? His promises? His commands?

Are we not the ones who fail to remember that we serve a God who never sleeps nor slumbers? A sower who knows where He has planted ever seed? A rainmaker who knows when to let the rain pour on the seeds He planted?

God is God! He remembers every single word you ever uttered since you learned to speak. He remembers every heartbreak you have endured since you learned to feel. He remembers every promise that He made to you, your mother, your grandmother, your great-grandparents, and even to their parents!

He is God – The Alpha and Omega!

Often times, we let our worries, our human mind, our human understanding, our human analysis get the best of us and we forget how Great our God is! We forget the miracles of old that we read in the Old Testament. We forget the miracles that fell for our eyes only when no one else was watching! We forget how amazing God is!

So we become bothered, we get discouraged, we let our thoughts overwhelm us, we let the events of today distract us from yesterday’s promises, and tomorrow’s harvest. Allow me to remind you that God still remembers! He never forgot and He never forgets!

We serve a good good Father. One whose mercy and grace is new every morning. I dare you to awaken your mind to the limitless possibilities of a limitless God! I dare you to remember how certain His word Is! I dare you to encourage yourself to keep believing for that miracle that the enemy wants you to forget because of what it looks like right now!

Friend, God remembers! In due season, in due time, His word will surely come to pass!

I pray for a reviving spirit to come over your mind today. May a refreshing wind from heaven overwhelm your soul today. May you be lifted up again, expecting again, believing again, remembering again, that the Lord your God is for you and has not forgotten you. Your seed is still right on time in Jesus name. Amen!

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Prayer Is The Master Key

prayers

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven…”

2 Chronicles 7:14

I thank God for prayer. I thank God so much for the freedom to tap into heaven in my tears, in my fears, in my uncertainty, in my confidence, in my joy, in my pain, in my confusion, and in my clarity. I thank God for the master key that is prayer.

I thank God so much for the freedom to tap into heaven in my tears, in my fears, in my uncertainty, in my confidence, in my joy, in my pain, in my confusion, and in my clarity.

I thank God for the master key that is prayer.

I have a job that demands more of my peace and prayer than I am naturally willing to give, often feeling almost incapable of giving since I am trying to keep it for myself.

This community of God’s people does not resemble the one in the chapter that preceded this one and that too has its misgivings.

The pages of this current chapter are nearing an end as I see the calling of my life on the horizon before me. Admittedly, the sentiments in my humanity are spilling over.

I feel the wars going on, the battle to take over my mind, to overwhelm my spirit, to distract me from purpose.

I feel the realm of warring raging around me, above me, and there is unsettlement in my soul. Things are being shaken out of place and into place and my knowing is all I have

I feel the wars going on, the battle to take over my mind, to overwhelm my spirit, to distract me from purpose.

I feel the realm of warring raging around me, above me, unsettlement is stirred within me. Things are being shaken out of place and into place and my knowing is all I have

So I pray.

In my disappointment, I pray. In my discomfort, I pray. In my disagreement, I pray.

The tears spill out of me even in a fasting season, and still I pray.

Friend, prayer is the master key.

Prayer is the heavenly language designed and delivered on the tip of our tongues to fight and win battles we cannot see, to release blessings from heavens’ gates, and to remind us of the power of God on the inside.

That is why the word of God tells us to worry about nothing and pray about everything.

I wonder if you, much like me, could use a day to just pray.

I wonder if you could use a day to call upon your Father and His angel armies to fortify the walls of your reality, to strengthen you from the core, and to claim the victory that is yours.

Friend, prayer is the master key. There is no door that prayer cannot open and no door that it cannot shut according to the will of God.

Prayer is our weaponry to win the battles even here on earth. So I urge you to start using it like never before.

I pray that God gives us the words to pray even when we do not know that which we ought to pray. I pray that the Holy Spirit moves us to our knees to bow down in faith and truth in prayer. May we be fortified when we feel too tired to pray. May our focus be realigned when we feel too distracted to pray. And may the windows of Heaven pour out a new anointing that drips humility into our being so we pray fervently as we ought to in Jesus name. Amen.

Resisting The Lies Of The Adversary

“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

James 4:7

 I am keenly aware of all the disorder going on in every community I am planted in. The unease I constantly feel about what is missing is one that is hard to ignore.

Then again, I don’t believe I am supposed to ignore anything in this realm of grace and glory. So still I beg for more grace to withstand the lack of order in front of my eyes. I hear the mandate of God to pay close attention.

I am told to pay attention to what is, and what ought to be. At first, amidst these revelations, I did not realize that I had begun to worry more, pray less, and shorter even.

Unknowingly, I had began to doubt the promises of a Faithful God in this short time. It was no ordinary thing that in my search within, I no longer felt like myself.

I felt lighter, weaker almost, like power and confidence was being drawn slowly out of me.

Then suddenly, it dawned on me that the adversary was at work and I had not been resisting him hard enough. I had stopped tapping in to the All-mighty grace and power of God to resist the enemy until he flees.

I wonder how absent-mindedly we often are about the subtle, yet powerful attacks of the adversary over our visions and especially over our minds. In my awareness now, I was able to see how much the war waged against what I was hearing and seeing, which started to affect that which I was thinking and then saying.

Friend, are you paying attention? Are you attentive to how weighed down you feel by the lies of the adversary?

Clarity surfaces when the Holy Spirit of God begins to stir you up again in prayer and longing for the word of God like you once did.

 I urge you to pay attention to the memories that God is bringing to your awareness.

Are you remembering times you woke up each day expecting God’s best and moving confidently in that expectation?

Are you remembering times when your faith was so unshakable that nothing was impossible to you in the name of God?

Are you remembering times when you clung to the truth  in your thoughts, words, and deeds, that you are nothing without God and His will for your life was all you were after?

Friend, this is how we resist the adversary!

Remembering the truth of God and realizing that the only way to fight  back the lies of the enemy is being fully equipped with all that is God – His truth. His Word. His will.

What has the Lord said to you? What has the Lord promised you? What has the Lord said about you to you?

Are these the things you meditate on day and night?

Or do you become so distracted with the pace of a restless world that you are unable to live in the peace that is the truth of God?

I pray for us today. May the Lord of Hosts pour again His truth, His refreshing eternal word of peace, joy, and love, into our Spirits. May our backs be straightened once again and our heads lifted high in confidence again as we resist the enemy until he flees in Jesus name. Amen.