JaNina B.

Everyone knows that if you don’t know who you are in God, the devil will tell you who you are not. The truth is that some things happen in your life to push you closer to God so that He can show you who you are. God has placed so many things on the inside of us that we don’t understand and we won’t understand them until we stop and listen to what he has to say. Will you stop willingly or will he have to sit you down? Jerimiah was a man filled with the word of God, but he did not want to open his mouth. He said that he was young, but I believe that God wanted him to focus on Him and not his own abilities. The world teaches us to look at ourselves. Either you are strong or you are not, but what about God? God is our strength right? So many of us are filled with the wonderful, powerful gifts and anointing of God, but we are afraid to move. Jeremiah probably was always bothered by the things that Israel was doing, but he may have kept it to himself. God gives us a purpose and a desir...

“Forget the former things;   do not dwell on the past.   See, I am doing a new thing!   Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” ( Isaiah 43: 18-19 ). A lot of times I miss the former things. I miss the things that God has called me out from. Sure I had a horrible boyfriend and sure I was depressed beyond measure, but my misery was comfortable and familiar. This new place, this process, is hard and lonely. I feel misunderstood everywhere I go, but I am aware that God is doing a new thing. Leaving Egypt was painful, uncomfortable, and loud. The problems in our lives can be so loud that they threaten to drown out the voice of God, but this new thing, this new thing has a process attached to it because the Egypt in us has to die. It takes a process to be comfortable in misery and it takes a process to understand that loving misery is dysfunctional. In this new place of God, our eyes have to be fresh an...

Everybody’s desert does not look the same. Abram’s desert did not look the same as Jacob’s desert, but both led them down the road of purpose. Deserts are necessary to teach you who you are and to instil lessons that only God can teach you. Deserts are not fun. You may lose friends, people may talk about you, people may betray you and they may seemingly be moving towards success faster than you are, but God has never taken anyone through a desert without making them rich in some way.   Abram gained riches in Egypt. Jacob became rich when he was living with Leah and Racheal’s father. Joseph became the pharaoh’s right hand man. Hagar met God. In the desert you met God and you find your purpose. The loneliness has a purpose. Sometimes all the distractions have to be moved so that you can see God. Although you may be in a desert place, you have to know that God loves you and that he has a purpose for your life.   You have to know that desert and deserted are not the same thing...

I am so passionate about relationships and waiting for the spouse that God will choose for me because I know the outcome of dating the world’s way. The world’s way of dating broke my heart on more occasions than I care to talk about and it put me in dangerous situations that could have affected the rest of my life. People don’t take dating seriously. They look at a person, see that they are attractive, and allow lust to enter their hearts and minds. To put it in a different way people date to have sex, not to marry. In some cases people end up in a relationship and in other cases both parties move on to the next warm body that they can find.   The world’s view of dating involves living together before marriage, one night stands, and having sex before marriage. I’m writing this with the young girls that I work with in mind. I see them twerking, pretending to be pregnant, and putting on booty shorts to see who has the biggest behind. I’m scared for them and girls like them becaus...

Mom is one of the greatest gifts that God could have given to us. She’s passionate about us and she fiercely wraps us up in loving protection. She is our cheerleader and the one that understands. In the eyes of a child, mom has all the answers and she is the smartest lady in the world. No one can take the place of mom….. But what about dad? Dad is our strong and mighty tower. Noon is stronger than him and his love holds us together. Mom is important, but there is nothing like the love of a father. Isn’t it funny how we compare “being there” to the presence of a father? If you talk to most people about why they feel a certain away, they will start talking about the absence or presence of their father. We even compare the love of God to our dads. This can be a good or a bad things depending on the type of man that the dad in our lives is or was. The key word is the last sentence was man . Today I got the opportunity to talk to myself. No, not literally, but me in the form a young gi...

I love honest Christians because their truth lets me know that I am not alone. The truth can be a scary thing to admit because it exposes and it uncovers. The truth can shame and it can set free. Some people judge you for your truth and others are grateful that you had the courage to step forward instead of being bound by shame. Your own anointing and your own freedom may very well be in the truth that you so desperately want to hide. God can use those thoughts, those mistakes, and those bad childhood memories to set someone just like you free. You don’t have to be the bad things that people have said about you. It is not their faces or their words that will break chains, it is the anointing that sets free and heals. I often tell the kids that I work with that their story will help others someday. They are more than what people have called them…..   Sometimes people need for you to look at them and see something different than what they have been labeled. They need for you to s...

One thing that I have learned about God over the years is that his plan for my life is so much greater than my own. I have also learned that his vision can be more than I can bear at times because I have a tendency to try to make the parts that he has revealed to me come to pass on my own. I ask God why and when, but the truth is that I am not ready. My faith has to grow and I’m still being prepped. It’s easy to feel like a failure when you’re trying to meet the expectation of others. I come from a family of all stars. I was expected to go to college. I expected myself to have what they have and to live how they live, but God…… God is expecting something different from me. He is expecting me to do and to move how he tells me to. This is hard…I have people expecting success from me. God is expecting success from me to. He is expecting me to listen and to wait. Waiting is hard. Jesus waited. At 12 Jesus was wise, but he had to wait. People expected things from Him also. They expected...

I believe that God sends us prophecies to offer us hope. I received my first prophecies around the age of 16. I was pretty aware of how God used his people to speak into the lives of others, but I would always hide at church when God started talking. I used to be afraid of people who had that gift because I was scared that they would know what I was thinking. Many times, although our thoughts are uncomfortable, when God lets you know that HE SEES YOU, there is a comfort in that. Wow, God sees me. I don’t remember who or what the first words were that God used someone to speak to me, but there are still so many words that He has released to me that offer me hope. Hope can be hard to hang on to in the storms of life. There are many times that I feel alone and forgotten, but I have to remember that GOD SEES ME. God will send a word of hope to you to comfort you in the times that you feel hopeless and lost.   The irony in this is that some words may come before you think you need the...

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...

“We heard him say, 'I will destroy this temple made with human hands and in three days will build another, not made with hands” (Mark 14:58). I hate the process of being built. It hurts. A LOT! Life and people beat on you and you can feel your self falling apart, but then you hear the sound of the contractors and the bricks being laid on top of one another to make you so much stronger than you were before. The beautiful thing about being built is that you have already been torn down. Many of the toxins have been washed away. Some of the pride is gone and God is the one directing and constructing the whole process. I said that I hate the process of being built, but I never said that you won’t find beauty in it. God will send people by your construction site to compliment the progress that HE is making. Ya see, you have to know that it is HIS progress. I have to stand on the fact that “he who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus”...

I believe that pregnancy is such a beautiful adventure. I look at all of the pictures that people take at every stage of their pregnancy and it makes me ask the question, what if God allowed us to see our spiritual pregnancy? How would we act and would we take care of the baby that we are carrying? People go through different extremes to get pregnant, let alone carry a baby. How is God preparing you to carry the destiny that he has called you to fulfill? Many people have to lose weight, you might have to lose some friends. Is your baby worth the loss? Other people don’t even want to get pregnant because they don’t want to lose their shape. They care what the world thinks about them and they are comfortable with their current circumstance. Then you have people who want a baby so badly that they try to adopt the destiny that God has placed into another individual’s womb. News Flash, God has enabled each and every one of us to be able to endure a spiritual pregnancy, you just nee...

Someone asked the question Why do we sing? When we lift our hands to Jesus What do we really mean ~Kirk Franklin “Why we sing?” It’s very very easy to get lost in the realm of religion or to get caught up in the hype of “church”. God has blessed so many of his people with gifts and talents that range from writing and composing, to worshiping, preaching and dancing. At my church, it seems like every one has some sort of gift and I must admit that I feel lost in the shuffle, but that brings me to point of asking myself questions such as ,“who am I going to church for?” and “whose attention am I aiming for?” Everyone wants to be noticed. We want to be praised and we want to be the favorite child, but at what cost? What are we paying to be number one in the congregation’s eyes? and do we even care if God is pleased with us right where we are? I’m the queen of being offended and I often compare myself, my progression in Christ, and my life to others. This should not be so and...

I think that we have all seen the movie Snow White , right? I’m not going to go into a summary of the whole movie, but there are a few parts that I would like to draw attention to. In the movie, the queen loved to look into this magic mirror and ask it “mirror, mirror on the wall who is the fairest one of them all?” and she was all good as long as the mirror said that it was her. She put this action into practice on multiple occasions, but a time came when the mirror told her that there was one fairer than her. The queen was not happy about this and wanted to take snow white out because she was more beautiful than her. Snow White was also a lot more accepting and nicer than the queen. My question for you today is, what does you spiritual mirror look like? When you look into that spiritual mirror, what do you see? What do you expect to see? and what would you do if the Holy Ghost told you that you were not the fairest, cleanest, most forgiving, most loving one anymore? It feels good ...

 I started singing, I started dancing, I started clapping, People were laughing. They knew my problems, they knew my pain, But I knew that God would take them away! ~Marvin Sapp “Praise him in advance” The key thing to focus on in the course of this song, is that “I knew that God would take them away!”     What do you know about God? I’ll tell you what I know; God is a redeemer, a father and my salvation. Don’t expect people to see what God sees in you because God sees you in the spirit where as people look at you through mortal eyes. Don’t you dare allow people to label you and tell you what you can and can’t do. My college advisor tried to tell me to basically stop going to college and try another field. She didn’t say change your major or even try to encourage me. This happened in a time when I didn’t know who God said I was. People’s lack of faith in me surprises me now, but I know that every accomplishment that I have made and will make,...

Do you know that some of us will leave God before we will leave a mate that lies to and cheats on us? Trust me, I‘ve been down that road and I’ve thought about going down it again, but I’m here to say to you don’t leave just yet. We give man so many chances to get it right, but we rarely allow God to shower us with the fullness of who he is. Your pain is for a season. In life we go through droughts, but God will never allow you to go dry and thirsty in the desert storms of life. Hang on to God’s every word in this season. We need to date God and treat him like the people we fall in love with. God wants that time with us and if you give it a chance, it will be so sweet. I pray that we see this sweet side of Christ. I pray that we stay up at night just to talk to him and ask him what he is doing. Wouldn’t it be awesome to blow kissy faces at God and tell him how much we love him and receive his love in return? I pray that we receive the love of the father. We know he loves us, but do...

It’s amazing to me that God can pass through a whole generation of people to pick the vessel that he is going to use.   I can just imagine how David felt when he was chosen by God himself to be the next King of Israel. I have no idea what David’s self-esteem was like, but I do know that he was the little brother who took care of the sheep. He probably didn’t even see taking care of the sheep as a ministry, but it was. God had to train him to be caring and protective because God himself possesses those qualities. David also had to learn how to be observant, strong and aggressive. When we refer to David today, we say King David, but back then, he was the insignificant little brother who took care of the sheep. I don’t think anybody ever looked at him and said “young man, there is a king on the inside of you”, but God had a plan. David was multitalented. He could play instruments and he was a worshipper. God used these qualities to usher him into the palace on a field trip. Saul m...

So many women define themselves by their relationship status. I used to be one of those women. It didn’t matter if that man cheated on me, lied to me, or insulted me; I was not going to leave him. I needed a relationship to make me feel beautiful and wanted, but at the same time I knew that the men that I was trying to make love me were not ordained for me. Women don’t consider that word, ORDAINED. It’s easy for a man to make us feel loved, wanted, less lonely and desired, but that man cannot make us feel full. That is what I need in my life, fullness. I understand that God is my husband and that my fairy tale love story has to begin with him before I bring a man into the mix. You see, marriage is a union. You become one with your husband. You live with him, you love him, you worship with him and you fight (spiritually) with him. The not so tricky thing about the before mentioned aspects of marriage is that all of those things have to begin in your singleness. I have a tendency...

One thing about my mom is that she has never forced me to go to any one particular church. Most of us have a church that our whole family goes to, but that church was not for me; so I searched. I didn’t search on google or go through the phone book, but people that God placed into my life took me to different churches. I was one of those people who went to church when bad things happened or because “I needed a word.” I did this for years. Today I learned that I was called despite not knowing who Jesus really was (John 1:48). I learned that he saw me while I was yet dyeing and told me to live ( Ezekiel 16:6 ). He wanted me to live while I was going from church to church despite not really having a permanent church home. I now have a church home! This means the world to me because like I said, I was called even when I didn’t know him. My current church is helping me to know God and to actually believe that he has both called and really sees me. I am not invisible to God! Like e...

What would Jesus have been like if he seeked his approval from everywhere else besides God?   He would have been a depressed mess, like most of us are. Yes, Jesus was sent to his own people and they rejected him. Yes, I’m sure it hurt, but Jesus understood who he was and he understood what his purpose was. Don’t allow people and being misunderstood deter you from your purpose and the reason that you were placed on the planet. It is so important for you to have a strong prayer life and for you to know who you are. Jesus is the model for this. He went through this life and the emotions that we have. He understands rejection. Keep in mind that Jesus was a carpenter. He understood the process, patience, and time that it took to build something. He knew what the end result should be and what things looked like when they were properly built. He also knew what potential looked like. Imagine the things that Jesus must have heard on the job or the unpleasant people that he must have en...

Some of us spend our whole lives working, worrying, caring for children and eventually dying. I no longer want to be a part of that cycle because I know that my God has so much more for me. A lot of us secretly blame God and we resent him when things don’t go our way. I will raise my hand and say that I do these things on multiple occasions because I never understand his plan. I also have to raise my hand and say that I never listen to him long enough to get his plan. At the end of the day, when we are broken and tired of blaming God we have to lay at his feet, submit, and stop trying to take on the world all by ourselves. God did not create us to try to survive in this world by ourselves, but yet we omit him and look to the heavens in a way that says “I don’t need you, I got this”. I’m here to say that I need him. He tells us so many times in his word that he loves us and that he will give us peace, but it is up to us to believe him and grab hold of that truth. God says that he k...

My truth serum is that I am an imperfect person who beats myself up for being just that. Even though I love God, I'm just like you. I get attitudes, I tell God no and I go to sleep without reading my bible, (I’m not even going to start on my thought patterns), but my biggest fault is that I lack joy. No matter who you are or where you are, you should have joy. God said that his peace would surpass all understanding and most days I still look for that peace. We mess up when we try to understand God because we will never understand him. We wonder why things happen the way that they do, but I’m blessed whenever I see or hear someone speak who has his joy and his peace. The difference between the world’s joy and God’s joy is that the things of the world will never make you happy. Stop comparing yourself to other people and just accept God because he has already accepted you. As humans, we mess up and question God when we should just trust him and know that all that he is (his gr...

  Have you ever tried to catch fire? I mean really catch fire? That notion seems hard and it seems crazy, but in this upcoming year, you need to get your catcher’s mitt ready because it’s time to catch fire! The fire that you need to be preparing for right now is not a natural fire, but it is a more powerful fire. It is an unquenchable fire. It is the fire of the Holy Ghost. God wants to ignite you like never before. He is tired of his people bei ng lack luster. He did not create us to live a mundane life. We are more than a 9-5 job. Our purpose and destiny is greater than any degree than we can get from a college or university. Stop believing that your title defines who you are. God defines who you are. No longer can you put off your purpose and your destiny. Put the fire extinguishers of life down and get aligned with your father so that you can catch his fire and run with it. God does not want for you to sit on the ideas that he has given you. Stop pushing them ...