Words Of Encouragement For Your Day (Friday 11/30/2012)

The Season We Never Thought Of

Job 1:6-12 Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁶ Now there was a day when the sons (the angels) of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan (the adversary and accuser) also came among them. ⁷ And the Lord said to Satan, From where did you come? Then Satan answered the Lord, From going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it. ⁸ And the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who [reverently] fears God and abstains from and shuns evil [because it is wrong]? ⁹ Then Satan answered the Lord, Does Job [reverently] fear God for nothing? ¹⁰ Have You not put a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have conferred prosperity and happiness upon him in the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. ¹¹ But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has, and he will curse You to Your face. ¹² And the Lord said to Satan (the adversary and the accuser), Behold, all that he has is in your power, only upon the man himself put not forth your hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.

            My husband and I were sitting in church on Wednesday night listening to the Word of God go forth in a very powerful way.  I listened intently because I had prayed before going into church that I needed a specific word concerning some things that I did not understand that were transpiring in my life and the life of our family.  Bishop Rudolph McCissick said something that almost knocked me out of my seat; he said “there is a season when the enemy is allowed to touch you and God will do nothing to stop or prevent it.”  I thought to myself what in the world, why would a loving God that adores us so much that He would ask His son to die for us do that?  As I sat on the edge of my seat trying to digest every nugget that was manifested in this message, little did I know what was happening in my husband.  We arrived home and all seemed well, and we went about our nightly rituals, but I had no idea that with all we had been going through, there was still more (no, not in our marriage in other areas).   I had just asked God is it possible to get a moment to breathe, it seemed like we had been going from one attack to another.  Somewhere around 1 am my husband tells me that he has been experiencing some serious symptoms since we were in church.  I immediately began to pray, not moved by panic, I stayed steadfast in prayer, sleeping little and praying a lot.  In the morning I checked on my husband and instead of the symptoms being gone they were still very present.  I thought to myself, now this isn’t funny, this is serious, and fear hit me. I still prayed but it seemed like my prayers were now mixed with some panic.  I did not understand; as much as my husband and I tried to live right and do what was asked of us, and follow the word of God and live holy here we were in a fight for our lives in more than one way.  As I placed my face in the bed and did not know what to say, the Holy Spirit gave me, some specific instructions.  I followed them, and did what I was told.  In a matter of 15 minutes, my husband’s symptoms stopped and although exhausted and weak from the fifteen hours of symptoms, He was better.

            At that moment God took me back to what was said the night before, in the message.  We are in a season that it’s rough and although, God seems like He is not present He is; He is standing there He just won’t touch it to save us from it.  He may not be jumping into the mix, or speak, but yet He is still present.  This is a season of being tried in the fire that is about proving ourselves and not just proving ourselves, but living what we say we believe.  What came to me, was will I really trust God even though He doesn’t answer my prayers the way I think, or at all in those moments and will I trust Him even when it seems His hands are off of me, in the area of protection and provision?  The answer I came to find just yesterday and the night before was yes.  You see I cannot say I understand God and all that He does and is, but I can say that I know Him, because in spite of what has and may be going on around me He has been faithful.  I have come to understand that truly if I sow in tears I will reap in joy. If I have had ashes that God will eventual replace it with beauty.  That if He said He will never leave me nor forsake me that He is not like us, He doesn’t lie and He hasn’t this is just something He has said we must face. But as with every season, there is a start date and an end date.  There is a beginning and an ending.  It will not last forever and be this way forever!

            Although we may never want to think about it, we all have things that we must encounter and go through.  There are things we must face.  And yes whether we want to believe it or not our faith will be tested and we will be tried.  Remember the object of this walk is to come out resembling God, through Christ.  That we should be the reflective nature of Christ here in the earth, but if we never go through anything, will that happen?  The likelihood is no that it will ever happen.  Purification is a process and it cost us, and it causes us, and it convicts us. It test us, it tries us and it tempers us.  Don’t think that just because you are in a season WHERE THINGS ARE TOUGH AND GOD IS SILENT that you have been forsaken or God loves you less.  The chances are God trust you more, loves you more and is standing right by cheering you on knowing you can do it, you can come through as pure gold, still trusting Him and loving Him, so that He can return unto you more than you lost in this season or any other.  Hold on to faith, even when God is silent and you feel as if you may be fighting alone!

Words Of Encouragement For Your Day (Wednesday 11/28/2012)

I Am A Part Of God’s Methodology

1 Samuel 16:5-13 Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁵ And he said, Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice. And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and called them to the sacrifice. ⁶ When they had come, he looked on Eliab [the eldest son] and said, Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him. ⁷ But the Lord said to Samuel, Look not on his appearance or at the height of his stature, for I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. ⁸ Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. But Samuel said, Neither has the Lord chosen this one. ⁹ Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. Samuel said, Nor has the Lord chosen him. ¹⁰ Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, The Lord has not chosen any of these. ¹¹ Then [he] said to Jesse, Are all your sons here? [Jesse] said, There is yet the youngest; he is tending the sheep. Samuel said to Jesse, Send for him; for we will not sit down to eat until he is here. ¹² Jesse sent and brought him. David had a healthy reddish complexion and beautiful eyes, and was fine-looking. The Lord said [to Samuel], Arise, anoint him; this is he. ¹³ Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed David in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose and went to Ramah.

            The other day my husband and I were watching Bishop Jakes minister and He stated misfits are a part of God’s methodology; this statement immediately got my attention.  Today I am a lot different from my siblings; when I was growing up, it was no different, I was a lot more than different from my siblings.  I wasn’t exactly the scholar, nor was I mild mannered and one that our family and family friends labeled as demure. I was what one would consider the black sheep, a rebel of sorts, a bit feisty, like the runt of the litter, and a bit more outspoken than most people appreciated. I was the one of my mother and father’s children that was the misfit of the bunch and the runt of the litter.  I was not comfortable even in school.  My peers did not embrace me with open arms; often sticking out like a sore thumb I found myself alone a lot with only a few close friends.  In school I was the church girl, with a bit of bad in me in church I was the one they considered the wilder child because I wore lipstick and dark nail polish and I danced to a different drummers beat.  I was in a place for most of my adolescence that I lived on the island of misfit toys.  Even my husband, who I knew in high school, said “you were so cute and small, but you had all that mouth.  I was not exactly the one who was loved and revered.  But the one thing I had to learn was God had a method to what many considered His madness manifested in me.

            You see the misfit; the least likely of suspects is woven into the fiber of God’s methodology. God takes those who the world looks over the one that came into the world in a way that people may view as suspect or stands out like a sore thumb in social circles and even in religious circles and He uses them to do great things.  Have you noticed on your journey throughout the Bible that God uses the misfit to prove His point, show His glory and manifest His truth and presence?  Jacob was a deceiver, a liar and yet God used Him to establish Israel, and make it a great nation.  The closest individuals to Jesus, His disciples those He walked the earth with and spent the most time with were the biggest bad of misfits, but yet God knew who they were and still chose them and used them in spite of who they had been, what job they did, how they lived previously or who their parents were; to God it just didn’t matter, what mattered was they were available, accessible and anointed for the task God intended to use them for.  Jesus was the biggest misfit, He was born of a virgin, (think of how he explained that to friends) born in a manger, and He was the Son of God robed in human flesh, all God all man, ( how well do you think that went over), just read the gospel and see for yourself. He did not function as Savior, He did not come as a King, and He certainly did not do what the religious leaders of the day did.  He did it God’s way which was not understood or accepted well by man.

            You see no matter who we are and how we got here, if God has a plan for us He has a plan for us and no one can change that.  No matter what people say about us or how we may feel; whether we feel we fit in with those who are considered the norm, or we don’t, God has purposed us.  If we are a misfit, someone who has been cast out or away, for whatever reason, this is a large part of the methodology of God for our lives. God seldom takes the ordinary, the common, without making it extraordinary, uncommon and changing its very intent and DNA to make it useful.  You see anyone can do use the ordinary, He uses, those who others look at and despise, those others look down upon, and think little of. Remember I told you, that people thought I was outspoken and had a lot to say, today God uses that gift to encourage, counsel and speak His word to others.  Don’t despise who you are, how you got here, or the fact that others don’t except you, you are in the right position and place to be used of God!

Words Of Encouragement For Your Day (Monday 11/26/2012)

By Revelation Not By Situation

Proverbs 3:3-6 Amplified Bible (AMP)

³ Let not mercy and kindness [shutting out all hatred and selfishness] and truth [shutting out all deliberate hypocrisy or falsehood] forsake you; bind them about your neck, write them upon the tablet of your heart. ⁴ So shall you find favor, good understanding, and high esteem in the sight [or judgment] of God and man. ⁵ Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. ⁶ In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.

            Over the weekend I began to think how many times I have become caught up in a particular situation and lost my focus on God.  I thought of how many times in my life I had allowed my emotions to overtake me and cause me to become fearful, offended and even angered, by the situation or the person or persons that were involved in a specific situation.  I had allowed myself to become swallowed up by the situation, instead of seeking the understanding, revelation and wisdom of God.  It was not that I did not know who God was, or I did not read His word and pray, but what had happened was that I had allowed things, people and situations to become my overall focus instead of understanding that for every situation and circumstance encountered here in the earth God had a plan that in most cases human wisdom would miss, or be unable to see and even often comprehend it’s necessasity.

            Some years ago I was going through something in my personal life and instead of my mother advising me to take the person to court, we prayed together and she reminded me that God was my source and not a man or anything else.  As we talked she said I feel as if you are supposed to just let it all go.  I looked at her with that same look that you see Scoopy Doo look at Shaggy with; that one that said you have got to be kidding me.  I thought what I had rationalized was most important she had missed and I did not even think for one moment what God may have been trying to do, or trying to get me to learn in this scenario.  You see often when we are rationalizing things our understanding is filled with emotion and limited to our experiences and what we “feel” is right and wrong, instead of seeking God and asking the Holy Spirit to illuminate our understanding so that we are seeing with the eyes of the spirit and the heart of God and not the eyes of flesh and our emotions. We often will find ourselves being comfortable with hurt, pain, anger, bitterness and being mistreated and in a place that is negative, instead of applying the Word of God and His understanding of a situation. When we rely solely on what we understand and what seems from a human stand point as right or wrong, good or bad, we will and can miss the revelation of God and His manifestation of something beautiful, something wonderful and healing in our lives.  I have learned that being able to look to Jesus and seek God’s revelation, helps me to live in a place of contentment and more peace. It even helps me to understand that I do not have to understand everything, at every moment. Learning to trust God and have faith in Him, frees us from the emotional ties that often dictate our lives in the earth.  It also helps us to know that God has us, and His will for us is that we are healthy, prosperous and our life is filled with a plan and a purpose that reveals His glory and His revelation within our lives.

            Choosing to live a life by situations will have us a continuous rollercoaster and being pushed and pulled by events and people. It will cause us in many instances to be miserable, because we have allowed the missteps, misgivings and choices of others to dictate how we feel, how we act, how we live and who we become.  Learning to lean on God and seeking to understand His ways.  Seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives, keeps us from being in a state of ruin by what things may appear to be and what situations may or may not occur in our lives.  We should live a life that is seen as God sees it, but that can only be achieved when we don’t lean to what is an understood fact by us in the flesh. Leaning on God, through our relationship with Jesus Christ and the revelation of the Holy Spirit will bring us into a place that situations will not jar us and take us out of the presence of God and into a place of depression, hurt and confusion.  We will understand that God has a plan, even when we don’t understand it or even when we cannot see His plan clearly, we will trust Him, because we understand that His revelation is so different from ours and His reasoning is far above ours and that His plan is always to bring us to a place where we live an abundant life that has destiny and purpose! Live by God’s revelation and stop living by the situations and see how much your life will begin to change!

Words Of Encouragement For Your Day (Wednesday 11/14/2012)

When You Speak, You Show Where Your Heart Is

Luke 6:44-45 Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁴⁴ For each tree is known and identified by its own fruit; for figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor is a cluster of grapes picked from a bramblebush. ⁴⁵ The upright (honorable, intrinsically good) man out of the good treasure [stored] in his heart produces what is upright (honorable and intrinsically good), and the evil man out of the evil storehouse brings forth that which is depraved (wicked and intrinsically evil); for out of the abundance (overflow) of the heart his mouth speaks.

            When I worked for a particular company some years back, we had an incident where it was learned that during meetings involving the supervisors and management that they would sit and openly discuss who they did not like and why, and what they intended or intended not to do, to those individuals.  It had become so bad, individuals were being set up and talked about, so much that it started to leak out of what was consider the sacred walls of those meetings to the individuals that were being pinpointed.  When things came to light and individuals began to quit and confront those involved, the phrase, “we didn’t mean it that way” was often used, or “I didn’t mean or say that”.  It was a sad fact that many individuals knew they could no longer work for these individuals because they knew that the words they spoke were the truth of what was in their hearts towards them.

Have you ever been in a situation like this, when someone said some nasty things to you, ran you down to someone else, or hurt you with their words and then said, I didn’t mean it?  I think we all have been there, and many of us have even been in a place when we have been the offender. Proverbs 10: 19 reminds us “when words are many, sin is not absent.”  It is inevitable whether we want to take responsibility or not, that when we speak, we let people know what is in our heart, and when we talk or speak a lot that sin has more of a chance of being a part of that conversation  or communication process.  As we understand often times, we do not want to own up to our words and actions and admit that we said it and just apologize and begin trying to repair the breach, instead we would rather, make excuses and try to make light of being found out, and the truth of our heart being exposed.  I will never forget, I was going through some things many years ago, and a true friend of mine, said, “Lisa, it is time you stop feeling sorry for yourself, and get over this.”  She told me she rather say it to me, then anyone else.  Although at the time it stung, I respected her for not running me down to others or saying that and then coming back and saying she didn’t mean it.  Later she told me she wanted me to live and not let the individual that was causing me harm to have control over my life and keep me from living a happy and full life. I respect her courage, because her words, although hard at the time came from a place of love and need for her friend to keep it moving.

We have to begin to look at what we say and how we say things.  We have to begin to also think about how we desire people to communicate with us.  You see too many of us are looking for people to speak well of us, and shower us with flowery words and give us high praise and compliments, when we are running people down with our words and saying things that are detrimental and negative about others in a hateful disrespectful manner.  As I told my son the other day, what you sow, even in your words, will come back on you and you will surely eat the fruit of your venomous, poisonous, negative words about and to others.  Yes even when they do not know or find out about them, remember God hears all, He never sleeps or slumbers; God can hear our every thoughts and knows even the very intent of our hearts.  Many of us do not have a clue that many of the things we are experiencing are a direct result of what is in our hearts that has surfaced in our words.  Take care to speak life and speak what you want people to truly know about you and what resides in your heart.  If you cannot speak life, or you do not want what is in your heart to be revealed maybe silence is a better option until you can get your heart in a better place; a place where God lives!