JaNina B.

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...

I often call Hannah the gift that keeps on giving because there is so much that can be learned from this woman. She is a real woman that has struggled with faith and possibly depression. She is a woman that had to share her man because it was the social norm of her time and she is a woman that struggled with being unfulfilled. Hannah got what was supposed to be her prize. She had her husband’s affections, but that was not enough for her. She wanted something that only God could give her and that was a child. As women, some of us make the mistake of thinking that marriage will fix all of our problems. We think that a man is supposed to save us and we wear his last name as a badge of honor that is supposed to make us complete in some way. Hannah found out over time that her husband could not complete her and she realized that her inner most desires were not in his hand. Hannah became a wife, but she wanted to become a mom. she had what so many women pray for today. She had her “Boa...

King Saul had it made. I mean, he really had it made! He was king, he was fighting philistines, and he had the prophet Samuel advising him the whole step of the way; but one thing stopped King Saul. His flesh! Flesh will cause you to miss out on the things of God if you don’t kill it continuously. We never read about King Saul fasting or praying. He was a mighty man who had an army but he didn’t have Jesus for himself. The righteousness of others will only get you so far. Samuel could not save king Saul from God. Saul had to learn how to seek God for himself, but even in moments of desperation he could not. “Seek ye the LORD while He may be found, call ye upon him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6 KJV). What are you going to do when it is time to seek God for yourself? What will your response be when grandma, mama, and Pastor Joe don’t answer the phone? You have to have your own relationship with God and you have to know how to be obedient.   King Saul was disobedient and ...

If you would, imagine that words can be cloth in armor, have a helmet on, and can carry a sword. Now, imagine that the words are powerful and can be gathered into an army. The words are strong on their own, but in a large number, they can either propel you into your next step or stop you in your tracks. With a battle field full of words with helmets on in mind, do you see the seriousness of this powerful tool that pushes us through life? Words are spoken to us and around us in our mother’s womb. The words help to shape us and to influence our thinking patterns. Now let me ask you a question, what are you allowing the words that have been spoken to you to do? Are you using the words to fight for you or are you allowing the words to war against you?” “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1 KJV). In the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God (truth). Everything that God had to say about you from the...

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...

In 2010 I was lost. I did not know who I was or where I was going. I was sinking. I was not living a life of purpose, but I was merely existing. That all changed when God injected Himself into the mix. I cannot say that I was looking for Him, but I can say that He definitely took the opportunity to change my heart through love. God loved me during a time when I placed a man’s attention over seeking and falling in love with the attention that He was showing me. God had already placed so much in me that He saw fit to not allow what He had already started to be wasted. I was in a backslidden state, but yet God loved me enough to still use others to show me what He thought of me. When God begins a work in you, He is faithful to bring it to completion. I desired God, but I was not running after Him. God meant me in a dark and lonely place. He continued to shower me with His love and He allowed the roots that He had already planted in my life to go from a dormmate state to a growin...

Your hard moments, setbacks, short comings, and tough times is what builds the “ tada ” for God to be revealed in your life. 2016 set the stage for 2017. People are watching you and trying to figure out how you are going to make it another moment. God has set the stage and you are the one that He has chosen to show His power through so that others may believe. God never left you, He prepared you. How any times did you think that you would die, but God provided a way each and every time? So many people have questioned God about the promises that He made to them. They are questioning His timing and praying that His timing will align with theirs. God is going to do everything that He said He would do, but it will be in the season that He has appointed for His word to manifest. Don’t try to move ahead of God because you are likely to get results that He did not intend for you to have. In Genesis 16, Sarah had a call on her life to be the mother of nations, but she wanted the c...

“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy” (James 1:2 NLT). Have you ever turned down a nice glass of lemonade? It tastes great doesn’t it, especially when someone that knows what they are doing is making it. No two people make lemonade exactly the same because our taste buds are so different. Some people like really sweet lemonade, but I personally prefer for my lemonade to be a little more tart. I want to taste the lemons! Some of us have spiritual taste buds that require us to taste the lemons of life. Everyone will not have a sweet journey, but the things that we go through will be enough for us to make a glass of lemonade to be shared with others. “There isn’t any temptation that you have experienced which is unusual for humans. God, who faithfully keeps his promises, will not allow you to be tempted beyond your power to resist. But when you are tempted, he will also give you the ability to endure the temptation...

Before I said yes to serving Jesus, one of my friends used to ask me “What will it take?”. He was saved and I was not. He taught me how to use my gifts for Christ, although I had no idea that that was what I was doing at time. I just knew that I could help in the area that I was helping in. I didn’t know that I was being trained in the area that God was going to use me in. At that time in my life, I had an idea of how I wanted God to come for me.   I don’t like new things and I wanted Him to come in ways that I had seen Him in before. That particular view of God still trips me up in my personal walk with Him because I am used to how I have seen Him before. I don’t need new, I just need Him to do what I have already seen Him do in my life before. I was comfortable with the old, but now everything is changing. God wants to expand my view of Him, but each and every step of the way I am kicking. I am again at a place of “what will it take?” What will it take for God to grow me u...

Today as I was reading a devotional, the writer spoke of a time in her life when she had to use rocks to see the things that she could not see. She was a child and so badly wanted to take a peek into a territory that was not hers, but yet, she and her friends were curious about what this territory held. One day the writer and her friends discovered some rocks. The friends gathered the rocks and used them to help them reach their destination. As I reached the section of the devotional that talked about rocks, I thought about the fact that the still things have a purpose. The rocks in your life have a purpose. Those things that seem to be dead and unmovable come to life when God gives you an idea or when He gives it a command to move. Unmovable things have a destiny and a plan to move in its appointed time. “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe ...

Many people want a baby. Babies are cute and huggable, but before the manifestation of the baby can come, there is a process that has to be completed. People make saying yes look easy. The journey that they have to take because of that yes is usually a little harder though.   It’s easy to look at cute pregnant women and want what they have. If they are married, we think in our minds that we want to get married too. We want the wedding, we want the attachments like the kids and the great house, but we don’t think about that cute woman’s responsibilities. When we look at people in the body of Christ, some of them look like they have it all together. They look free and their prayers are beautiful, but we never think about their process. We don’t consider the babies that they have lost along the way and we don’t consider the pain that they had to go through to birth the beautiful baby that we see them carrying around (purpose, freedom). The birthing process is not that pretty. ...

As I was reading a devotional today I saw the word crushed. I love this word! I also love the words broken and wrecked. To most people these words are destructive and may even evoke an emotion of pain, but to me, these words are beautiful. There is beauty in the crushing. There is beauty in brokenness. There is beauty in being wreaked. Yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but what and who have you allowed to dictate what you consider to be beautiful? To be very honest, just because I stated that I love the before mentioned words, that does not mean that I love the process that comes with them. Life hurts. We have ups and we have downs, but what have you allowed your perspective to be in the midst of every painful experience that you have endured? I have had so many things attempt to take me out, but the beauty that I have found is that God always seems to hold me together. I have had my heart completely wreaked by people and by life over and over again, but the trials h...

  “But now, LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are our potter. We are the work of your hands” (Isaiah 64:8 GWT). Do you remember playing with playdough as a child? It came in all kinds of colors and it had multiple variations of molds that you could choose from to make whatever object you could imagine. When you took the playdough out of the container, it came out in the shape of the container, but it was moldable. In order to change the shape of the playdough you had to tear it apart, put it back together, squash it down, and maybe even separate it in order to make exactly what you wanted. When you bought that playdough, you never intended for it to stay in the container, but you bought it with the intention of making something new out it. You may have even bought it with the intention to share it with other people. When Christ died on the cross, He bought us with the intention of making us into something new for His glory and He bought us with ...

“Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening” (Acts 16:25 NLT). Paul and Silas were some bad boys! Can you imagine doing the right thing and being locked up because of it? These men had a freedom that the people they encountered needed to see because they were not bound although others could visibly see the chains that had been placed on them. They did not misrepresent Christ because of their circumstances and they did not try to give up serving Him because of the predicament that they had found themselves in. ~~~~~ Stop being mad at God because things do not go the way that you expect them to. ~~~~~ “ And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). Paul and Silas knew who their God was and they knew that He was going to come through for them no matter what their situation looked like. They knew enough about God...