Where is the love?

Many times I have been to churches and I have experienced no love. Now, you may wonder what I mean by this. I’m not saying that God should not be the focus and I’m definitely not saying that we should go to church for people or to play the sympathy card. I’m merely asking where is the love of Christ in church? I did not experience the love of God through “church people” until I got to my current church (I got so tired of people hugging me, lol). A lot of times we see people sitting right next to us and we don’t even bother to ask them how their day is going. God can do all things, but He uses us also. You smiling or asking someone how they are doing can brighten their whole year up. The world can be so cold and unforgiving. No one should have to come to the Lord's house and experience the same treatment. If you were in a tough place in your life and a stranger told you that God loves you and asks you if you needed prayer, would you look at them crazy? Keep in mind that you’re in a tough place in your life when answering that question. This same example is how God desires to use you. We do not go to church to look pretty and fill seats; we have a job to do and God is feeding us His word so that we will be equipped to do it. Show the love of Christ to someone today. I know that this assignment may be hard, but ask God to teach you how to see with His eyes, feel with His heart and hear with His ears.

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Take Off the Old Rags and Put on the New Garment

Have you ever had a childhood item that you loved? That thing may be worn, dirty, and falling apart, but you hold on to it because of sentimental value such as the memories attached to it . That item could be anything. It could be cloths, a toy, or even a picture. In many of our lives the old sentimental thing that we hold on to is our sin. We attach unhealthy sentimental values it. Many of these sins originated in our childhood so we hold on to it and in most cases, hope that no one ever sees it. Not every sin is private, some people are wide open with their sins because it is socially acceptable to take part in such things, or they have stooped caring what other people think it. Like those childhood items, we may tuck our sins away and bring them out in secret. In some cases, we even form unions with people who are holding on to the same item (sin) that we are holding on to. The items (sins/ demons) have been with us so long, we don’t know how to function without it. Today, Go...

Walk on Water Faith

Becoming great takes faith. Peter did not become great in the twinkle of an eye. He had to go through things. This same man who stood up boldly to tell people about the Holy Spirit also once denied Jesus. We have to be so prayed up in Christ because we don’t always know what our flesh or our circumstances will cause us to do. The struggle to greatness gets real! David had to fight many battles not only in the world, but in the kingdom of God because he was called to greatness. David wrote many psalms documenting his trails and successes. He was a man after God’s own heart, but yet he was not perfect. We go through things that help sustain us in this life and we can’t remain discouraged by the hurts that the world throws at us. I admire the bravery of the apostles because I don’t know how well I would have done emotionally if whole systems were coming against me. These men were beat, lied on, and put in prison because of the Christ that they were representing. People will ...

Baffled by Christ: Real talk/ The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!

I’m always baffled at the stories that my mother tells me about what I was like as a child. From her point of view, I was a mini adult/ care giver. At the age of two I made her sandwiches and I knew the medicine that she needed to take when she was sick. I even remember packing her bags when she had to go into the hospital. I knew everything that she would need or want. I packed her pretty pajamas, tooth paste, bible and other things I don’t remember. Today, at 28, I don’t like to perform such responsibilities because it is nothing that you can ever get used to, but I would still do them. The baffling aspect is that God has been using me since I was a 2 year old to be a sensitive help mate. When I write, my desire is to tell the truth. I don’t mind sharing certain aspects of my life because I see God in them and my hope is that others can see how God is moving in their lives also. My desire is to ignite the passion of Christ in his people. So many of us are stuck. So many peop...

Need Prayer?

“But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:32a). For a time, I didn’t ask people for prayer . I became protective of ‘my stuff,’ and I backed away from needing people because I had me-the army of one. I felt alone, misunderstood; all the things that I wanted no one to know about because I got me . This mindset created offense and functional depression. I backed away so that no one would see it; no one knew me enough to recognize what it looked like. “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat” (Luke 22:32b). What does it look like when you are being sifted? The sifting starts early in life and can be a continuous pattern if the devil feels like his tactics are working against you. I asked a friend recently, “Why am I so emotional? Did God give me these emotions?” I tend to feel deeply because I am an intercessor, but the emotions have to be stewarded properly. You have to master them by submit...

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“You did not choose me, but I choose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He may give it to you.” (John 15:16 ESV). At the church that I attend, the stage/ alter has steps that one can ascend on to reach the top. As I looked at the steps, I envisioned what God is doing in this season. I saw a representative on the floor before the steps began , and I saw them moving up one step at a time. We are in a season of elevation and with elevation comes great responsibility. As I consider the prayers that I have prayed and the questions that I have asked God , I see the answers all around me, but inwardly I have rejected the responsibility that comes ...

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God paved the way for my present and my future with the prayers that He placed into my heart many years ago. I didn’t know what new challenges I would have to overcome or what would be required of me as I uttered the sentiments of my heart into His ears. All I knew was that I wanted to serve Him. One my many heart’s desires was to not be a seat filler. I didn’t want to grow content with occupying a seat in the church and never getting out of it to go into all the world to do what God had ordained for me to do in the earth. At that time I didn’t know who God had called me to be and I didn’t understand that some of my prayers was an indication of it. Spoken from a transparent place, as life happened, the more God told me to get up the more I wanted to sit down. Tiredness and fear had gripped me on more occasions than I want to admit and I have had the audacity to whisper, “ get somebody else to do it”, on more than one occasion. I felt justified in what I...

Where is your Heart

God taught David how to fight. He fought a lot of personal battles before he was strong enough to fight the battles that we know him for today. David had to know how to depend on God in private before he could publicly show us how to depend on Him. David had to fight other people’s opinion of him even up until the moment that he was anointed to be king. Nobody looked at little David and saw a king. When they looked at him, they saw the youngest of 8 sons. They saw a shepard and they might have even seen a punk. I wonder if David’s brothers even knew that he was about that life. Did they know that he had fought and won a battle against a lion? Did they know that he took on a bear? Did they know that he was a prophetic musician and poet who was getting closer to God while they were busy looking the part of a position that they would never fill? The mistake that some people make is that they are more concerned with looking the part then they are with having the heart to fulfill t...

Whom the Son Sets Free Is Free Indeed

Give your self-permission to receive and walk in the grace that God gives you. King David had to allow himself to receive grace. He was not perfect, but he knew how to remorsefully repent and he knew how to position himself at the feet of the King. David messed up while walking in his purpose. He tried to hide his sin, but God saw it and confronted him on it. We have to know how to receive God when He confronts us with the good, the bad, and the ugly. We can choose to continue to sin or we can choose to submit to our Father and repent. God does not expect for us to be perfect, but He does expect for us to be submitted. Saul lost his position with God before he lost his position with man. He cared about what people thought more than he cared about what God thought. Both King David and King Saul serve as an example of how we can choose to listen to God or ignore Him when He confronts us about our sin. There are so many people who are dying because they are hiding something. Th...

The Anointing of God Destroys the Yoke

“The anointing of God destroys the yoke.” (Isaiah 10:27) A yoke is a life center, much like a nucleus. It holds the nutrients of what something needs to survive. A yoke can be a choke-hold that weighs a person down like a slave who is forced to work against anything that will set them free. It can be viewed as a symbol of oppression, forced submission, and defeat. The anointing of God is His supernatural power working through you by way of the Holy Spirit to do the seemingly impossible. The anointing is like a signet of God’s presence being with you. You need the anointing of God to complete the tasks that He has divinely assigned to you as His child. With God’s anointing, you will go places and people will be made free from the bondages/ struggles that have plagued them and their family through many lineages because the chains will be loosed through the undeniable power of God. If I can be honest, some people fight their anointing because of fear. They don’t want it because...

Kairos:God’s Opportune Time Table

There are moments and seasons that are not defined by man or their opinions. In those moments “their” opinions don’t matter, your background does not matter, and your last name does not matter. Those moments are the ones that define your destiny and triumph over your past. Those seasons are the ones that you are born to walk in and nothing can steal them away from you. That moment and that season is specified as being your kairos moment. Your life, your destiny, your ministry, and your purpose are all in your kairos moment. Everything that you are and ever will be, boils down to that moment. Your kairos moment cannot be defined, manipulated, or determined by man because it is a moment that is determined by God alone. King David was the underdog. He was the youngest and most different when compared to his brothers. Even the prophet Samuel could not identify God’s chosen vessel in the flesh because God had to reveal to him who the next king would be. Being alone and being the u...

JaNina B.

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