Difficulties

Last week I received an email from a good friend, expressing about the subject “Difficulties” and how important it is to accept that life has many; that when you do,  they can be the changing point in your life to make you who you can be in Him. I agreed with a lot of what she said and the scriptures that she brought up, but I felt impressed to immediately respond with a more focused light on the subject, one that goes deeper into how you can handle these problems and allow His Word to transform them.

We are two weeks into the New Year and God is surely in the midst – as well as people transitioning into new seasons of breakthrough and adversity. This is a revised version of the email that I responded to her with – I hope it blesses you!

We all know that life can certainly be difficult and can be even more so if we don’t think that it is going to be that way. We all know that some think that once you have received Christ as savior, then poof, everything is fixed. That is to a certain extent true, but we have to take it and own it, every day of our lives. The enemy knows this and will continue to do what he can to tear the kingdom down and discourage others from seeing the Light in the midst of darkness.

Problems: After accepting that they are in the midst of life – Oh, how so many can pile on when you expect it to be so and even when you don’t! What’s even more important to pin down is what do you now?

Do you just think that God will wave His “magic wand” – and poof they go away or will you put His Word to work and allow a peace to come over you – knowing that because you have put it in His hands, ALL is well? And then after that, keep believing it is so and thank Him for it? James 3:10,  says “Out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers, it is not right for these things to be so.” Let us not take these words so lightly, as these are powerful and wise words to remember every single day – in a world that is filled with problems and circumstances that seem so out of reach and unchangeable. No matter the size of the storm – nothing is too big – know and remember that if and when He calls you to walk upon the water, He is there waiting for you with His hand stretched out and ready to catch you, cover you and lift you up in His Love, Grace and Mercy. It is in the way we handle our problems that will be the cutting edge to distinguish our growth mentally and spiritually.  God has provided us with the greatest flash light of all – but if we never turn it on, it won’t work!

Something that God showed me last season, something that was so hard for me to grab a hold of was to LET GO AND LET GOD – CONTINUALLY.  I am still working on applying it every single day of my life in every area – I have learned that that is where He can do His best work. I encourage you to keep speaking life in your situations and circumstance, and seek His wisdom, and Peace will be there. Sometimes we allow our own wants and ideas to get in the way of just how to solve the problem, or allow Him to show us how. Remember, His ways are higher than our ways, so that is why He has guided us how to see His ways and be His ways. He needs us just as much as we need Him! We have to do what He can’t on this Earth. I firmly believe that there are many times in my life where I have found myself in a difficult situation; I can assure you – being frantic has never helped me, and I do know that if He did just wave that “magic wand” that we think He will do, then no, we will not learn anything for the next circumstance. I  believe that God allows certain circumstances in our life to arise because we allow it. He does not cause them, for only good, loving and life-filled things comes from our Heavenly Father. This is why it is important to seek His Face and not just His Hand in the midst of it all, because we are in the world but not of  it – we need to Let Him in this world because problems do live here, each and every day. But thank GOD that ALL things are possible to those who believe through Christ Jesus!

I believe great things can happen in this blog; In Matthew 18:20, our Father said When two or more are gathered together, in my NAME, and I will be there! What is a difficult time in your life where you have allowed God to reign and not the circumstance – or where it took you a while to let go and let God. I would love to hear your testimonies! Be Blessed and feel free to ask me any questions.

House of Prayer

{ Matthew 21:13 – 22 }

My Fathers House Shall be Called a House of Prayer!

13 And Jesus said unto them, “It is written, my house call be called the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves, 14 and the blind and the lame came to Him, and He healed them. 15 And the chief priest and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying Hosana to the Son of David; they were sore displeased. 16 And said unto him, “Hearest though what these say? And Jesus said unto them “Yea, have you never said, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings though has perfected praise?” 17 And Jesus left the scribes and went into the city of Bethany, and stayed overnight there. 18 Now in the morning, as He returned into the city, He was hungry. 19 And when He saw a gig tree in the way, He came to it and found nothing on it, just leaves and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on this from now on ever.” 20 And when the disciples saw it, they marveled saying ‘How soon is the fig tree withered away!!’ 21 Jesus answered them and said “Verily I say unto you, IF you have faith and doubt not, you shall not only do this to the fig tree, but also shall say to this mountain, Be thou removed and cast into the sea; it shall be done. 22 and all things, whatsoever you ask in prayer, believing you shall receive.

Notice that Jesus doesn’t say, if you have great faith, then you can move mountains and your prayers will be answered. Actually, the only measure that He compared faith to was  the example of a mustard seed (Mathew 17:20, KJM translation), which is the tiniest of seeds (always produces after its kind and can never cross-generate). He simply states, if you believe (not having unbelief) and doubt not.

Here’s a thought: Doesn’t it seem odd that you could believe in something but still doubt – doesn’t that sound like an oxymoron? But this is clearly something that us as humans, have struggled with for generations upon generations.

For example: You can believe that your child is amazing and the best thing at any and everything ever known to man, but as time passes with what you see in this world, the struggles and the hardships, you can easily grow to have doubt that they will make it far in life and be successful, right – or for you to even really believe that they just might not need you all their life? This is not something we want to admit sometimes (actually a lot), but if any fear is near, doubt will certainly be there and take over – and it will.

How Do We Get Rid of That Fear?

{ believe – prayer – ask – faith – believe – trust – embrace ultimate love }

{ LOVE } How do you get a grasp of that kind of love, a love so strong that it will shed light to cast out the darkness around you and others? You get it from the ultimate Source and remind yourself of that Love every single day. Walk in love where ever you go and don’t let darkness get a hold of you! Darkness will be here for a long time, so until then, keep shining that flash light of the Word. When you BELIEVE, the results are more powerful then you could have ever imagined.

What Does a House Consist of?

{ family – unity – growth – teaching – giving – provision – love – living space – respect – comfort – place you go to be you – place you go to get away – privacy – gatherings – celebration – rest }

In Matthew 21, Jesus tells us how important prayer is. So much so that He calls the church to be a House of Prayer.

It is interesting to see what a house means to me, and to what I think it means to most, when you connect it with prayer.

God yearns for an intimate, loving and life-filled time with you in prayer, in the Body, in your house and in your heart. A lot of times what goes on in your house stays in your house unless you invite your neighbor into your world, either physically or just mentally allowing them to be there and know whats going on. That is what God wants from us, He not only wants us to invite Him in and be a guest, but to be a family member – but not just any family member – the head of the household. He desires to have constant communication with us – in fact He needs this from us; without it, it is difficult for Him to do much because quite frankly, He is not allowed to ( Psalm 115:16 ). He can not lie and can not take over the lease on Earth that is in our names. But if we give it to Him, He can still be our organizer, our Healer, our Planner, our Daddy, our Friend, our Confidant, our Rock and our Refuge. He can be all of those things, but needs us to allow Him into our house and to let Him know we want Him there – that he is welcome – to acknowledge that we need Him and want to be readily available for whatever He needs us for as well as whatever He has planned for us.

It is no mystery that one huge important factor to any household  – relationship – partnership is communication with one another. There needs to be partnership and teamwork – respect and understanding of what goes on in that house and what belongs to whom, who is in charge of this and that. Yes, those boundaries get crossed, and when they do, the end result is usually chaos, fighting, bitterness and being unproductive.  But if communication is there, the fire goes out a lot quicker, and it could help resolve a “next time”, or just help with a better understanding of each others personal space and belongings and way of living and loving. No one likes not being heard or understood, the same goes for God.

Something that I am always talking to my son about is stop looking at what I didn’t say yes to and what someone else’ mom or dad said yes to. I ask him to look at what I have said yes to, and the fact that he has a lot of good around you; a safe home, food, love, clothes, toys, some more toys … you get my point. I know what my son needs and what he can handle right now and what he can not. An important factor in this is that I talk about it with him; he may not always understand why at the time, but over time it becomes clear that he understands and respects the fact that I didn’t just pull, “Because I said so” on him. Yes I do that sometimes, but I think it’s important to communicate with your children what you have planned for them and why you do certain things for them and why you want things from them in the same respect. As they grow, your relationship grows with them and you can learn to talk about any and everything. There are plenty of things that I get for my son that he doesn’t necessarily need, but if he has taken care of what I have already given him, I have the funds to do so, it’s good for him and his age and the space to hold it, then I don’t see why not! God wants this relationship with us! In 1 Peter 5:2, it  tells us how He longs for us to take care of what He has given us right here, right now, so He can keep growing us and Blessing us and others in ways we could never dream of or imagine!  He is readily available, willing and waiting – but without prayer as our connection source, it’s almost as if going to the drive through at the bank, and telling the teller what you want /need (what belongs to you) but there is no speaker.

You both acknowledge one another, but you might as well be speaking another language because you can not hear one another. Do we only go to Him when it’s urgent – when we are in a rush and need it fast and have no other resort?

Remember, He is the Daddy of the Household. The one who puts food on the table, pays the light bill, buys you clothes, sits down and talks with you when you messed up, but also gives you a big hug and says “It’s OK my little one, you are growing and I forgive you, this is why I am here”. He knows what will hurt you, harm you, what will be best for you and what you can handle now and what you can handle and conquer later.

When I was growing up, my dad was definitely a hands on dad and certainly a talker, communication was key in our household. When my brother, sister and I had to have a “talk”, it wasn’t just a little talk and pointing of the finger and saying how bad we were or how much we were in trouble – we had what was in fact called a “meeting”, in the same setting and room just about every time. These meetings seemed absolutely dreadful to us when we were younger, but as we grew up, we actually enjoyed having “meetings” and actually called together some of our own. We saw the purpose, the love and the wisdom behind what our dad continually worked on to instill in us and teach us. When you have your ears open and ready to receive from your caretaker, your provider, your life giver – it makes a world of difference.

Now, imagine what it would be like for the Kingdom to get a hold of the beauty and power of prayer with God and each other, for us to really understand the power of agreement (Matthew 18:19-20)! Think of it like a big family reunion, with grandma or grandpa making the time to hear each of you, speaking with you and giving you gems of wisdom, love and advice! Tell you how much they love you, are proud of you, and believe in you – that they will be there whenever you need any and everything. That is how our God is – when connected in prayer, and when it is done in a family, it is that much stronger and works that much more powerful!