New Year... New You

So it's been a long long time since I wrote on the blog here, life as a pastor's wife and all the other titles us women can handle can be quite busy!   I look back on the year passed, 2012, and think of all that the Lord has brought us through and to,  and I just have to rejoice and praise Him for every trial, and every triumph.  Pastoring can be tough sometimes, you see people come and people go for various reasons and you sometimes wonder if you could've done things differntly.  How can we improve?  What can we do as leaders to ground those that are under our leadership so that they will grow and be effective for the Kingdom of God and that they can flourish where they are planted.   You see, it isn't about building a BIG congregation.  It's about building relationships, imparting the vision and letting others catch it so that they will help to carry this BIG plan that God has for us, it's about Loving, nuturing and watching new converts grow in God, it's so much more than we can even imagine.  I just thank God for a New year and a New Me, for Him to create in me a heart that pleases Him more and more everyday.  Not my will but His to be established in and through me.  In this new year, ask God for a New you.  Maybe you've done the same things every year and you're still in the same place.  Time for change and time for growth. 

Prayer:   Lord, I thank you that you are the Lord of my life.  I ask simply that you renew my thoughts so that they be your thoughts.  Your ways are so much higher than mine and I can't do one thing without you in my life.   Make me new in you this year so that I can make a difference in those that I meet everyday of my life.  Heal and Deliver through me.   Use me for I am willing and available~  Amen. 

Offset Offense

Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the
devil, roams around like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize
upon and devour. 1Pet5.8.AMP

Life is good when everything is going great, there are no problems, no bumps in the road, no car breaking down, no overdrawn checks at the bank, kids doing good in school, etc..... WRONG....Look out, something could happen at any moment!   The above verse is a good example that we always need to be on guard, and cautious of the enemies attacks.  He is seeking around just looking for some weak Christian, or not, to hand them some bait and GOTCHA!!!!!   He reels you in and you are caught!   The amplified version tells us that he is roaming around like a lion on the hunt for a kill.  He's hungry and he won't stop until he has somebody in his grip.  I have seen too many Christians take the bait of Satan and fall.  I'm talking people that you thought were mature, but let one circumstance occur that throws them off their course and they become weak, tired, depressed, spent, sick and tired and the enemy sees them as a target for his next meal.  I'm tired of seeing the body of Christ beat up, messed up, confused and backslidden(divorced from God).   One area that the devil uses is OFFENSE.   They become offended because somebody rubbed them the wrong way so to speak, didn't pay them enough attention, didn't recognize them for something they did, or maybe they felt left out and felt as though they "didn't fit in."

We have got to become more mature than we are so that we can ward off these attacks that Satan uses to cripple the Body of Christ.  Too many people are leaving churches and going to other churches infecting them in the same way as the did the last one they infected.   

 Stay in the Word of God, become rooted and grounded in the church where you are planted,  stay in prayer, fast and seek the face of God and we will have strong Christians in the Body.  It's time that we combat the enemy with the Word of Almighty God that we have been given by God.  The Word says we should be well balanced.  In our everyday diets, we are told to eat a well balanced diet and exercise so that we can maintain a healthy body.  When you are consuming the right foods you are well balanced, more healthy, you have energy, you sleep better at night because you are balanced.  The Body of Christ is out of balance.  We have too much flesh manifesting and no spirit and we are being run by our flesh, driven by our flesh and we are dying spiritually.  We don't know how to fight off the enemy so we just give in.  We get angry and we get even and then we just leave.  Which leaves alot of wounded leaders and pastors trying to figure out what in the world they did or did not do.  Enough is enough.  We can't win the world one person at a time, we were are wounding each other.    Flesh cannot stand in the presence of a Holy God, only spirit.  We need to become balanced..............Read your Bible, spend time in prayer, meditate on His Word, operate in the gifts of the spirit, fast, sing to yourselves psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to build up your faith, your spirit man.  Fellowship with believers, forgive yourself and others....don't isolate yourself from others when you are in the midst of a battle.  Don't give place to the enemy, don't get offended, refuse to get offended!  

Be at peace

Just thinking today about peace and what it means to have peace.  The Word talks about a peace that passes all understanding.......alot of times we don't understand why certain things happen to us at unexpected times, come to think of it, who's expecting bad things anyways??  At times certain events in our lives happen without warning like storms, disastrous storms, death, illnesses, loss of a job, divorce, betrayal, etc.  But God gives us a peace to deal with these types of things according to 2 Thessalonians 3:16, that He will give us peace at all times(under all circumstances and conditions, whatever comes).   Sometimes our soul becomes bombarded with so many things and remember that your soul is your mind, will and emotions, where you process your thoughts, make decisions, where your emotions can get crazy!  God wants us all to be at peace and  for our soul to be at peace.  Our minds on any given day can be going in 10 different directions, racing, not knowing what to do or how to do.  God offers a peace that the world can't give you.  You can't find peace in a pill, a bottle or a club.  You can't find peace by running away, secluding yourself or going to some kind of counselor who is gonna take all your money, just to listen to your problems.  I'm telling you today that there is a Peace Speaker and His name is Jesus.  He can calm your troubled storm, He can lighten your load, He can carry your burdens, He can take you out of the pit and put you in the palace so that your feet can be placed on solid ground!   There is no other name by which you can be saved but by the name of Jesus Christ.  What you need is a Word.  Get into the Word and meditate on what you've read.  You don't have to rush through the Bible in a year.  God is not impressed by how fast we can read the Bible through in a year....c'mon somebody!!   God said, hide His words in your heart and meditate on them day and night.   Don't let your mind rule you, rule it, rule your thoughts, take dominion over the thoughts that are tormenting you.  It's a crazy world out there and there are lots of distractions and lots of things to keep us busy.  Let's not get so busy that we miss out on all God has for us.  We need Him much more than we can imagine.   So get peace, keep peace and keep your mind stayed on Him.  Love, blessings and peace out...

Come up Higher

God recently gave me a new song during a prophetic time of praise and worship.  At the time I just thought it was for the worship service at the moment.  This song was given to me in order for me and others to really see the heart of God and how He sees others.  Come up Higher is describing a deeper relationship with our Creator, our Lord and Savior, our Friend, Comforter, Deliver, and seeing from how the scriptures teaches us to follow by His example.  Jesus came into the world so that sinners could be forgiven, so that sickness and disease could be done away with by the stripes that Jesus bore for us.  So that we could live a life of freedom by the blood that He shed for us on the cross.  Jesus is Love and we can only show His love by living like Him.  Phillipians 4:9 tells us to practice what we have learned and received and have seen in me, and model your way of living on it, and the God of peace(of untroubled, undistrubed well being) will be with you. 

We should see as He sees, Live as He lives, walk as He walked, talk as He talked and Love as he loves.  If we are gonna win this world to Christ one person at a time, then we must BE like Jesus.   Once they get saved and start living their life for Him then they will learn by us to live the same.   Come up higher, come up higher to a place where you can have the eyes of Jesus, the compassion of Jesus.  Seek after His heart and after His way.  What we need is an awakening.  An awakening of the saints of God to get up and get busy sharing what they have on the inside.  This gospel must be preached to everyone and time is short.  So Come up Higher with me and we will see changes in the lives of countless millions of people. 

No more sleepless nights.

Well we had an amazing day yesterday at Flowing Waters!   During praise and worship the prophetic anointing came upon me and well....the rest is HIStory.   What a time we had!   I was singing the song, Shout unto God with a voice of trimph, shout unto God with a voice of praise....  and next thing I know I had moved from the keyboard to the altar praying for women, men and children who had been having sleepless nights!  Much like myself, God's daughters are being robbed of sleep!   We go to bed late, or go to bed worried about something that we thought we had forgot about and then it shows up in our dreams, or we argued with our teenager, or we're thinking about everything we need to get done the next day!!  So much that a woman has to do but I assure you, you are equipped to do everything that God has designed you to do & more!   Let's face it, we just don't get enough sleep at night but God wants us to rest when we lay our heads down at night and have peaceful sleep.  Psalms 127:2 It's useless to rise early and go to bed late, and work your worried fingers to the bone.  Don't you know he enjoys giving rest to those he loves?
So, my husband and I determined last night that we just need to go to bed earlier!   Lay down at night and rest our little heads, with no worries or fears of tomorrow because according to Jeremiah 29:11...God has great plans for me and I shouldn't worry my little head about anything!

So Daughters and Sons of God, don't lose any sleep due to worry, stress, cares of life, finances, our kids, church stuff, family, your spouse snoring or your dog,  etc....   Get some sleep!   Rest in the name of Jesus, that robber of sleep has to leave you now in Jesus' name.   Blessings ;)

It can be removed!

Hey,  God specializes in doing impossible things when He deems it necessary but all it takes is us believing by faith that He can and He will.   It may seem that there is a mountain that stands before you right now, or even a Goliath....  Well that Golaith to David seemed ridiculous I'm sure in the natural.  How could a young boy so small defeat a giant who towered over him....to put it mildly?   He had great faith that the God he served would be all he needed to slay the giant before him.  When he hurled that stone at Goliath, little stone now....it had an incredible force of faith behind it and down Goliath came!  And we make things so difficult sometimes.  We make a mountain out of mole hill.     All it takes is believing that God can do anything you ask.   You may say, well that's easier said than done, yes but God.....When you ask Him, put some action to your faith and move forward and don't look back.  Get your eyes off of the mountain in front of you and command it to move.  It may be a mountain of debt, it may be a mountain of family problems, sibling rivalry, marriage problems, work, friends, etc..... Whatever you ask, when you ask,  if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to the mountain, move from here to there and it will move, and nothing shall be impossible to you.  Matthew 17:20  The Message Bible translation says if you had a mere kernel of faith, a poppy seed, you would tell this mountain, MOVE!  and it would move.  There is nothing you wouldn't be able to tackle!!!   Hallelujah!!   That's it, that's all you have to do.  Tell it to move and it can be removed!!!!!!!    

So I'm agreeing with you that whatever it is that you are facing or dealing with that you will command it to get out of your way and it will be removed!    In Jesus Name...Amen (let it be so)  ~

Stand....and then keep standing..
     If you're gonna live for Christ you have to take the good, the bad and the ugly at times.  It's not a picture perfect rose garden free of thorns.   The enemy will try to trip you up when it seems that all is fine and dandy.  You see our enemy, the devil, is walking to and fro seeking whom he may devour, he's trying to steal, kill and destroy us.  He wants to see if we are gonna be able to withstand what he dishes out.  You just have to stand your ground and let him know that you have been given more, say it...MORE....authority than he has.  He roars, he calls names, he laughs at you, he brings your past back up as a movie screen sometimes, but you have to be strong, immovable and grounded so that he can't tear you down.   The Bible tells us to Stand therefore with our loins gird about with the gospel of truth.....that means you must quote the WORD to him.  Memorize the scriptures like Jesus did when He was being tempted by the devil.  Jesus had been fasting and no doubt was probably hungry, but when He spoke the word to him, Satan had to flee.  So when he tries to come against you with his bag of garbage just stand still, don't let him move you or shake you.  You are more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ.  Satan is the loser and you are the winner.