For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7

I received a text from a dear friend yesterday morning. She shared an experience she had on Sunday when she went to lunch with friends after church. As she checked the menu, she decided to order something different this time. When her meal arrived, she insisted it wasn’t what she ordered although her friends confirmed she has indeed ordered that.

Now this may not have bothered most people, but being in her early 80’s and having always been sharp minded, it really bothered her! No, it didn’t just bother her, it scared her.  Can you relate? Nobody wants to lose their mind at any age. There is truth to the statement, ‘a mind is a terrible thing to waste’!

Here is my conversation with her:

Me: I understand. Don’t get stuck on it though. Ask God to give you a sound mind and worship over that promise.  Don’t let fear take hold. It’s ok!

Friend: 😦 😦 😦  (3 sad face emojis)

Me: That’s right where satan wants you to be. But you need to let him know that God has not given you the spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind.  Did you hear that? A sound mind! Now start worshipping God for that rather than focusing on one moment of forgetting.

Friend: Thank you

Me: You’re very welcome! Love you. See how easy it is to be persuaded that a lie is true? That’s why we are commanded to guard our hearts and minds. It is how we fight our battles! We speak the truth and we win over lies. It doesn’t matter how real those lies look in the natural, in the spirit realm we know the truth and the truth sets us free!

Friend: Happy face! I have never done anything like that, EVER!

Me: Well I sure have!  I do understand how troubling it can be. Please understand that what the devil does is tries to get you focused on what happened instead of focusing on what the Word says. That’s why Jesus said; Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid! You have to trust the truth more than you trust what you just experienced. This is just a distraction! Don’t keep repeating what happened, keep repeating what the Word says! Your mind keeps looping that episode over and over and over in your head. Isn’t that what you’ve been experiencing since Sunday? And see how much it’s bothered you? But now that you  know the truth, begin exchanging the Word for those thoughts. Each time the thoughts come, cast down those vain imaginations and exalt the name of Jesus!

Friend: Guess it means the devil attacked me where I was weak (vulnerable) and unaware I was fearful of because of my age…

Me: That’s the truth! He doesn’t go after areas you’re strong in. What’s the point? He’s always after the weak (vulnerable) areas.

Friend: I win! Jesus is my SAVIOR, MY REDEEMER, MY EVERYTHING!!!!

Me: You have the mind of Christ. A daughter of the great King. You think like God! When you speak His name, demons tremble. There is no one like you and no one can take your place. You are the Father’s favorite daughter. You always win!

Friend: NO MORE FEAR HERE!

So listen up my friends; for the truth to set you free, you must KNOW it. Know the Word! The weapons of our warfare are found in Ephesians 6:10-20, know them and use them! If you don’t understand it, read it in various translations and ask God to give you revelation on it.

Remember that the devil is always trying to distort the truth! I Peter 5:8 AMP says; Be sober [well balanced and self-disciplined], be alert and cautious at all times. That enemy of yours, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion [fiercely hungry], seeking someone to devour.  So be on guard! Fear does not come from God, it comes from satan. Recognize it as a trick to distract you and steal the peace of God from your heart. Don’t be complacent! Be aggressive! You can’t ignore him and hope he goes away.

Your fears may be different, but they’re still real and satan is using it as a tool to win in your mind. DON’T FORGET THE PROMISES OF GOD! You must believe them! If satan can convince you to change your confession of faith by putting more symptoms on you, he will! If he has to send more bills so you feel hopeless, he will. It’s how he works. Know how he works! Hebrews 10:23 says, Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

I’m constantly reminded that God cannot direct your steps if you are not moving. Sometimes the voice of God is merely an impression or something that repeatedly comes in your view. But as you take a step, your direction becomes clear. Rarely have I gotten a clear picture of the entire outcome until I took several steps in the direction God was leading me.

You see faith is built one step at a time. It’s not faith in your ability, but it’s faith in God’s ability. Abram was told to leave his country and kin folk to a land God would show him. His direction was determined after he packed up and left.

When God led Moses into the wilderness, he took one step after another until he reached the Red Sea.  Even though it looked like the end, God opened the sea and made a way across and took care of the enemy that was pursuing them in the process. What looked like the end was actually just the beginning.

Psalm 37:23-24 TPT says it like this; The steps of the God-pursuing ones follow firmly in the steps of the Lord, and God delights in every step they take to follow Him. If they stumble badly, they will still survive, for the Lord lifts them up with His hands. That in itself takes trust so even if you don’t know the details, He does! If you knew ahead of time where you were going and what you were going to be or do, you would formulate your own plan and get there your own way. But that’s not how God works! God wants you to totally rely on Him.

My friend, if you’re stuck in a place where you feel there’s no movement or clarity, take your bible and notebook into a quiet, distraction free zone and ask for God to speak to you. Trust me when I say this, He will speak to you because He loves it when you come to Him to have conversation. Not just you talking, but you listening. Wait upon the Lord. Rest in His promises. He who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it.

Jesus. Just mentioning Your name stirs up my spirit as I anticipate Your voice. There’s no place I’d rather be then here, alone with You, sensing Your love, hearing Your voice and feeling Your warm embrace. My heart is overwhelmed and I’m anxious for the knowing, but I will wait here until my anxious thoughts are stilled and my ears are tuned to the whisper of Your voice. Here I am Lord.

How do you know it’s God? I’ve asked this question and had it asked of me many, many times and this is what I’ve personally discovered. If it’s God, you can’t rationalize it, figure it out or make sense of it. It will be birthed through prayer and the Word and will come in a quiet moment with Him. It will seem totally impossible and nothing you can do in yourself. It won’t be anything you’re ‘gifted’ for.

Think of Gideon; the least of all his family, totally unqualified but called to do something  so astounding that he could only walk it out in faith, belief and trust. So he called all the men of Israel and they actually came and look what happens next.

Judges 7:2-3 And the Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’  Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.’ ” And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.

God didn’t do it once, He did it till there were only 300 men left to deliver Israel from their enemy.  Why you ask? Because if it’s something they could have done without God, they would never have looked to God.

So ask yourself this, “Are the crazy instructions I heard God speak, possible for me to do alone?” If so, it’s probably not God! If it’s God, it’s usually so far outside your comfort zone that you need a bus to get there and the countryside looks scary. If you make the mistake of sharing it with anyone that is not ‘way out there in the faith zone’, they will laugh and tell you you’re crazy, God doesn’t work like that!

Don’t try to make it happen, Gods just letting you in on a part of His ginorous plan. Call it an advance warning that your life’s about to be flipped upside down in a big way. It’s all messed up! Over the span of time when you hear the call and the implementation of the plan, you will be on the most amazing journey of your life. You will get multiple prophetic words from various people you don’t know and who have no idea what God has told you. You will go through things and wonder if you heard right.

By the time you reach your destination, you’ll be bruised, busted and disgusted with a faith in God that you’ve never had before in your life. You will no longer care about what people think, what they say won’t faze you. You’ll have a resolve to keep your eyes on Jesus for as Paul said in Philippians 1:6 CEV “God is the one who began this good work in you, and I am certain that he won’t stop before it is complete on the day that Christ Jesus returns.”

Everything you go through is just part of the process, bringing you out of faith in you to faith in God. Be of good cheer, my friend. You heard right! Don’t you worry bout a thing. Just don’t give that another thought. Suffice it to know that you’re a part of His plan. Make yourself available for any and all He has for you along the way. It’s part of the process to grow you into the person He needs you to be to accomplish His purpose.

“You’re thinking too small!” Thats what the Lord spoke to me as I was driving home. I asked for a point of reference and He directed me to look around me. So I looked all around me and again I heard, “You’re thinking too small!” So I asked that He open the eyes of my understanding and help me to see what he was trying to show me. Suddenly I knew it wasn’t what I saw in the natural that he was referring to, it was what I saw in the Spirit realm.

Isaiah 55:8-11 CEV says: “The Lord says: “My thoughts and my ways are not like yours. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, my thoughts and my ways are higher than yours. Rain and snow fall from the sky. But they don’t return without watering the earth that produces seeds to plant and grain to eat. That’s how it is with my words. They don’t return to me without doing everything I send them to do.”

I need to think like God does and not allow the smallness of my natural view to stunt me from all God has for me. Like Elisha, I need to see the fiery angel chariots on the hills of deliverance rather than the natural enemies that surround me. 

We’ve all heard the term ‘super-size’. Perhaps that’s how we should be thinking, super-sized thoughts. A pastor once said, “Better to shoot for the moon and miss then shoot for nothing at all!” We will only go as far as our thoughts will take us. If we can’t imagine it, it will never happen for us.

It’s time to think like God does so we can do what God has designed for us to do. As long as we think that miracles are beyond us, we will never see them happen. But if we will step out in faith and lay hands on the sick, they will recover for that’s what God said! Step into God’s line of sight and see yourself doing what He said you would do.

Father, I trade my eye sight for yours. I trade my vantage point for yours. You are indeed higher and mightier than anything that I face in the natural. Everything I need is in your Word and I will focus on what is in your realm and not mine. I trade my words for your Words, for they are life and health to me. Others may not understand me, but I seek to please you by becoming more and more like you each day. You’ve called me to come up higher, to leave the world behind, so I come. Into your arms, I come. Into your Word, I come. Into your deep and everlasting love, I come. In your grace I will make my home. Make me more like you.

Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Proverbs 30:5

When God puts His anointing on you, it’s to take your natural ability and put a super on it so that you no longer depend on the natural, but the supernatural to do what you do. Trusting in God who is Spirit, pulls the things which are in the spirit realm into the natural realm.

What you place your trust or dependency in determines the influence you have in the earth. If you trust in your ability, you are limited. But if you trust in God, He gives you His ability on your ability so that you have super-ability to do something you would have been lame in doing on your own.

That’s what happened with Solomon. He was wise to ask for wisdom to lead, but it was God’s anointed wisdom on his natural wisdom, that made a name for him throughout the earth. And because he didn’t ask for money, god gave him more money then anyone ever had and he blessed God with it.

You see, money can’t buy you love, it can’t buy you friends and it can’t buy you healing. But God said He would be a father to you and He loves you with an everlasting love. He is a friend that sticks closer then a brother. He’s your healer, provider, strong tower, deliver and only wise King.

It’s His anointing that has the power to break bondages off your life. It’s His Word that heals and sets you free. Anyone can read words off a page, but when God shines a flashlight on a word, it can take the darkness of your life and fill you with hope. It gives you confident assurance that He, not money, will provide everything you have need of.

Oh my friend, He’s such a good, good Father! Good fathers provide! Good fathers take care of their children and you are His! Stop trusting in YOUR ability to do everything and trust in HIS. Is anything too hard for Him?

And God is able to make all grace (every favor and earthly blessing) come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need be self-sufficient [possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation]. Thus you will be enriched in all things and in every way, so that you can be generous, and [your generosity as it is] administered by us will bring forth thanksgiving to God. 2 Corinthians 9:8, 11 AMPC

We have such a generous and giving God who loves to bless us. Not so we can live a life of luxury and ease, but so that we have the opportunity to be generous to others which causes them to praise God!

This word, grace is speaking of the undeserved and unearned favor of God. You did nothing to deserve it or earn it, it’s only by faith in Jesus’ sacrifice that you can receive it. It’s a concept that is so foreign to us that we often think there’s a catch to it. Let me assure you there is not!

If God is able and His desire is for us to be blessed, perhaps the only missing ingredient in our life is to believe it and have the faith to receive it. Do you believe? Even if it doesn’t happen the way you’re expecting? Even if it doesn’t happen in your timing?

I don’t understand how God can love me so much that He wants to bless me in spite of how selfish I can be or how bad I can be, but I do know He loves me because He said He does and He can’t lie. Because I’ve chosen to believe on Him, I will be saved as well as everyone in my house. Look it up, it’s in the Word! There are no if, and or buts about it. BELIEVE-SAVED! DON’T BELIEVE-DAMNED!

If we would spend more time in the believing realm, we’d spend less time in the waiting realm and more time in the manifestation realm. Simple truth-it isn’t about the rules, it’s about the heart!

For with the heart a person believes (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Christ) and so is justified (declared righteous, acceptable to God), and with the mouth he confesses (declares openly and speaks out freely his faith) and confirms [his] salvation. Romans 10:10

Father, thank you for such a free gift! I believe and receive it today, hook, line and sinker! No going back to the old way. I am holy because You are holy. It’s not my doing right that makes me right, it’s only by Your blood that makes and keeps me right. Thank You for such a sweet and awesome plan. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

The Shulimite Bride: He alone is my beloved. He shines in dazzling splendor yet is still so approachable—without equal as he stands above all others, outstanding among ten thousand! The way he leads me is divine.  His leadership—so pure and dignified as he wears his crown of gold. Upon this crown are letters of black written on a background of glory.  He sees everything with pure understanding. How beautiful his insights—without distortion.  His eyes rest upon the fullness of the river of revelation, flowing so clean and pure.  Looking at his gentle face I see such fullness of emotion. Like a lovely garden where fragrant spices grow—what a man! No one speaks words so anointed as this one—words that both pierce and heal words like lilies dripping with myrrh.
 See how his hands hold unlimited power! But he never uses it in anger, for he is always holy, displaying his glory. His innermost place is a work of art—so beautiful and bright. How magnificent and noble is this one—covered in majesty!
He’s steadfast in all he does.  His ways are the ways of righteousness, based on truth and holiness. None can rival him, but all will be amazed by him.
Most sweet are his kisses, even his whispers of love. He is delightful in every way and perfect from every viewpoint. If you ask me why I love him so, O brides-to-be, it’s because there is none like him to me.  Everything about him fills me with holy desire! And now he is my beloved—my friend forever. (Song of Song 5:10-16)

The Bridegroom King: O my beloved, you are lovely. When I see you in your beauty, I see a radiant city where we will dwell as one. More pleasing than any pleasure, more delightful than any delight, you have ravished my heart,stealing away my strength to resist you. Even hosts of angels stand in awe of you. (Song of Songs 6:4)

Oh how I love him so! Reading these verses made my heart skip a beat and left me breathless and longing for his return for me. He’s coming soon, my friend! So very soon.

Many have grown weary of waiting and have turned away, trusting in things that are seen and have chosen what’s temporary in place of eternal. But I will wait with longing and expectation. I will wait for my Bridegroom King to come for me.

Revelation 22:17 TPT: “Come,” says the Holy Spirit and the Bride in divine duet. Let everyone who hears this duet join them in saying, “Come.” Let everyone gripped with spiritual thirst say, “Come.” And let everyone who craves the gift of living water come and drink it freely. “It is my gift to you! Come.”

My weakest worship deserves Your deepest love.

The eyes of the Lord are upon even the weakest worshipers who love him— those who wait in hope and expectation for the strong, steady love of God. Psalm 33:18

There have been many times when I just didn’t feel like worshipping but I did it anyway because I’ve learned it’s not about feelings, it’s about doing right things for the right reasons. At the time, it felt like it was just wimpy worship. Like maybe I should have stayed home from church because what’s the point if you’re not worshipping with all your heart?

But when I ran across this verse I realized that because I love Him, even at my weakest, He is still strong and steady in His love for me, how awesome is that? I can be having the worst day ever, feel like the world is crashing all around me and when I lift my hands and close my eyes and turn my spirit toward His, my hope and I confidence returns and I’m lost in His presence.

Oh the measure of Your love for me! Not one thing You’ve created can contain it all yet You’ve chosen to flood me with it. This Love can’t be duplicated or engineered. It’s amazingly indescribable and tremendously unpredictable but never ending in it’s ebb and flow. In my weakness You’re made strong.  I will gladly let Your arms envelop me and hold me up, for I cannot stand in Your presence. All Your glory surrounds me like a cloud. I am left undone.

Here’s what I’ve learned through it all: Don’t give up; don’t be impatient; be entwined as one with the Lord. Be brave and courageous, and never lose hope. Yes, keep on waiting—for he will never disappoint you! Psalm 27:14 TPT

It’s taken a bit to get to this point in my journey and I’m no where close to having arrived. I still have moments of uncertainty and by no means has the word ‘patient’ been a word deemed worthy to describe me. However I will say that when I tuck myself up under God’s arms and see the love in His eyes as He looks on me, nothing else matters at all.

How do I know when I’m right where I need to be? When nothing makes sense at all! Because I know I’m only seeing what’s around me, but God has a different vantage point and I’m right where He needs me to be for His plans to work. That’s when I’ve learned to smile and lean in, trusting Him to make a way.

So my fellow traveler, be brave and courageous and NEVER lose hope! Keep waiting, keep trusting because He will NEVER disappoint you. If you were expecting just enough, you weren’t factoring in the God factor. He’s a ‘more then enough’ God, always looking for ways to show Himself big in your life.

Today, practice cuddling up to Daddy God and let Him show you what He’s capable of doing all on His own. He simply wants you to trust and obey, for there’s no other way! Keep a smile on your face and a song in your heart. When fear tries to enter in, shake it off and remember who has you.

Father, for all the years I’ve walked in fear and impatience, forgive me. I could have saved myself so many sleepless nights if I’d have practiced cuddling with You. Resting in Your arms of grace and love, learning about You and all You’re capable of is all I need to do. Waiting on your crazy instructions so I can jump in and look the fool for You. It’s in Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

I recently heard a story of a minister who was invited to speak at a leadership conference in Asia where leaders from all over China had gathered. They begged her to teach them about leadership because all they knew to teach their young people was how to witness to their executioners as they were martyred. She simply fell at her feet and wept!

The one who doesn’t love has yet to know God, for God is love. 1 John 4:8

For this is how much God loved the world—he gave his one and only, unique Son as a gift.  So now everyone who believes in him will never perish but experience everlasting life. John 3:16

I’ve been writing a lot about love lately, but I believe that if we don’t learn to love like God loves, we will never know God or have any idea of what He looks like. Once you’ve experienced that kind of love, you will never be the same again. It’s a giving love that continues to give whether the love is returned or not.

You see my friend, if I only love those who love me, I don’t love like God does because God loves those who don’t love Him. It goes beyond that. He wants you to know Him and live with Him eternally so He’s always listening you in hopes you will call out to Him. Just once! He loves to give good gifts to His children but gets blamed for the bad his enemy does.

What if there was a revival of love? Where all of God’s children allowed the spectacular love of God to shine through each of us. What would it look like if the entire world was set ablaze with the awesome love of God? All at once! Lifting up our lamp of love so that every person could know and experience that wonderful it. How life changing would that be?

God, shatter the hate, the doubt and unbelief so that the light of Your glorious love would shine through me. Just when I think I love, the opportunity to be hurt, angry or frustrated squeezes it out. I lay it all down for the sake of showing others what You look like. Reflect through me! May they see You more then me. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.