Time for a Checkup

This past weekend, I went to the mountains for a retreat. It was wonderful and hard at the same time. This wasn’t the kind of retreat where you just rested, and ate, and maybe played a game or two! This retreat required me to examine myself and not make any excuses. You see, I went on the mountain seeking a special encounter with God. I was determined to not come down the same. I went up that mountain burdened and angry and bitter. Now, best believe I had convinced myself otherwise. I talked a good game but inside I was a bit of a mess.

Have you ever been stripped bare by God? I mean allowed Him to really purge you? If not, I encourage you to go to your secret place and ask God to show you how you look to Him. You don’t have to go on a retreat, He will do it anywhere and it is a revelation. I looked heavy and tired and sad. It wasn’t a good look. But I’m grateful that I did not have to stay like that. Once, I was able to really see myself, I could ask God to restore me. The Bible says in Ephesians 4, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. “

How powerful and freeing it is to leave all the baggage. Yes, even that old stuff that you have buried really deep inside that still manifests itself in how you see yourself and how you react to people. And some of our stuff is super deep. The scars of molestation or heartbreak, pain of how a parent or family member treated you, the loss of someone important, guilt. It can eat at you without you really recognizing it but it’s time now to let it all go. I left everything that was not like Him up on that mountain.  You see, I want to be the place where God lives. I want to be a place of worship!

John 14 talks about how Jesus is the vinedresser and He cuts away any branches that aren’t bearing fruit and prunes the ones that are so that more fruit can come.  How awesome is it that He can look at you and clear out what is not producing in you. Can you think of a better doctor’s appointment than that?

It’s true that we don’t always hear good news after a checkup but the Word does in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”  

How awesome to walk away from your checkup leaving the old, dead things and wearing nothing but new things! My prayer for each of you is that God will show you what needs to be cleaned out and you will walk in forgiveness, freedom, and power!

Be blessed…

How Great Thou Art

When I was a little girl, my grandfather used to sing the old hymn, How Great Thou Art. He had a beautiful, deep bass voice and even as a young child, I remember feeling a movement on the inside when I heard him sing that song. If you’ve never heard the song, I urge you to listen to it. It talks about all of the awesome creations that God has created and how those things remind you how great He truly is. 

As I was sitting at my desk this afternoon, that song just started playing in my head! I talked to people and moved around but it kept coming back to me. So I said, I better pay attention to this! Then it came to me…no matter what I write each week, it all comes back to how great God is! We can’t get to freedom or breakthrough or prosperity without realizing who it is that we serve and how awesome He is.

I had a conversation with someone who has been having a very hard time in life and the Holy Spirit urged me to give her a hug one day. When I told her that I felt she needed a hug, she asked me, “What is it about you?” I told her that it was the Lord. She then said something so profound…”Is that what I’m missing?” I told her that she could have Him. He is right there waiting for her. Sometimes we forget how awesome it is to have the Lord. Someone who always listens, gives great peace that surpasses all understanding, and loves you like no other person. It shouldn’t take someone that doesn’t know Him to remind us but sometimes it does.

So this week, I just want to acknowledge how wonderfully great God is! He has been there for me when I felt like giving up. He formed my children in my womb and knit them perfectly together. He gave me His word that I can turn to in any situation. But best of all, He gave me His Son that died that I might have life! What has He done for you?

I challenge you today when you pray to just take some time to love on God. Don’t ask for anything, don’t complain about anything, just tell Him thank you! Tell Him how great He has been to you and see what happens! It might just take you to a new place of worship…He’s worthy!

Be Blessed!

 

Don't put the chains back on...

I woke up this morning with the word FREEDOM in my spirit. I immediately started praising God for that word because it has special significance in my family right now. But then the next thing I heard was, “Don’t put the chains back on!” Wait a minute, Lord! Okay, let me sit here for a minute and get this right. Then He started revealing to me that there are many people that need to get freed and not just physically but from various things in the world that have kept them down. Then He said, “Whom the Son sets free is free indeed.” That’s good news!

I remember when I was in college; I thought I loved this guy. I was so wrapped up in him that I refused to see all the things that he was doing that went against what I believed a good relationship should be. I was never the only one. He didn’t just want his cake and eat it…he wanted ice cream and whipped cream too! All of my friends and family tried to tell me that I needed to separate myself but I always had an excuse. I am a fairly smart person with good common sense and come from parents that have a strong marriage, so I knew what a good relationship looked like. But the devil had so clouded my mind that I couldn’t see my way out. I cried many days but never said enough was enough.

Many years into the “relationship”, the fog started clearing and I started to want more for myself. I was in the shower one morning and I started to weep! Not just cry but deep, from the gut wails and I asked God to free me from that man. I asked Him to clear my mind that I might be able to recognize a  good man when I saw him. Immediately and I mean, immediately, He did it! My heart lifted and started praising God…right there in the shower! Isn’t it good when God meets you right where you are and takes care of your need?  I got out the shower, called that guy and told him that I was done with him…not one tear shed! I was free and have been since that day.

I say all this to say that there is no past experience, no relationship,  no addiction that God cannot free you from, if you ask Him. He will do it and you will be free indeed! The devil is strong but God is stronger and if you open yourself up to His freeing power, you will never be the same! Stop allowing the devil to keep you in bondage to your past. If you let Him, he will remind you every day of who you used to be or tell you that you need that man to make it. He will even tell you that that drug is the only thing that can give you peace of mind. The devil is a liar! Ask God to give you your freedom and when he does rejoice and walk in it.

FREEDOM! FREEDOM! FREEDOM! No more shackles, no more chains, no more bondage, I am FREE!!!! Watch how your life changes, how your worship changes….I am praying for that kind of freedom for each of you! Hallelujah!

Amen…

Listen to God Speak

It’s amazing how time passes so quickly! Here it is summertime, when it seems like it was just winter. I know I’ve been guilty at times of moving through life at the speed of light, rarely stopping to rest or enjoy life. I always have somewhere to be, something to watch, or something to do. I looked around and the baby I feel like I just had is now 2 and a half years old with more stuff to say than the news! Where did the time go?

This week at church, we were charged to pray more. Not the pray while you’re driving or taking a shower prayer, but focused, no distractions time with the Lord. What a revelation that has been to me! I pray all the time but I realized that I had gotten so busy with life that I was squeezing God in when I had a minute or at the end of the day when I was so tired, that I wasn’t giving Him all the time He deserves. I would get up in the morning and say my prayers in the shower and then with Sanai on the way to school and throughout the day but I was moving so fast that I wasn’t always giving Him a chance to answer.

As I was waiting for a word today, I went on YouTube to listen to some music and the first thing I saw was the phrase, “Listen to God speak”.  So I slowed down and stopped what I was doing and just reverenced God and I waited. And don’t you know He spoke…

Are you taking the time to hear God speak? He really wants to talk to you and share with you but you have to be available to hear that still small voice speak a word. And when you take the time to stop and listen, He will not only speak to you but He will refresh you! In Acts 3, Peter tells us that when we repent and turn to God, He will send times of refreshing.

 I don’t know about you but I need the glory of the Lord to refresh me! I am making time to spend with God…going into my bathroom with the lights off and just communing with Him. He has already sent revelations my way and awesome encounters with the Holy Spirit. Don’t let time pass you by and you miss the opportunity to commune with the One who has blessed you to have what you have.

Be blessed!