God Speaks I Listen

Ephesians 5:17  Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord

Many people say they don’t know what God wants for them to do in life. The bible which is God’s words to us is pretty clear as to what we should do. God gave each one of us gifts, talents and direction for using these skills.

My spiritual gift is the ministry of encouragement. I live for this and try to do it every day. God gave me the ability to sing and 34 years ago I started using it for the kingdom. I have other talents too and I try to incorporate them into ministry where I can. I look for opportunities every day to use something for the kingdom. I ask the Holy Spirit to open my eyes and ears to God leading me to do things.

There are times when I’m not doing too much so I use that time to prepare myself so when He wants to use me I’m ready. I’M ON CALL FOR THE MASTER 24 HOUR A DAY AND 7 DAYS A WEEK WITH NO TIME OFF!

What is my motivation for doing God’s will?

1. Thankfulness for all He’s done for me
2. Obedience His word
3. To perpetuate the kingdom of God
4. My greatest motivator is…my love for God!!!!!!

I share this with you because I want everyone to be all they can be in Christ. Take inventory of your life and see what you have to offer God. If you already know your gifting… reexamine your gifts and make the necessary adjustments to make sure you’re on the mark. Go all out for the Lord. Don’t do all this other stuff just because it’s kinda spiritual or seems like a good ideal. But pray and then follow what the Lord is leading you to do.

1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

You should want to be in Gods will because you know God so well and have such a close relationship with Him that you know what he expects from you but your great motivation should be because you LOVE HIM so much that you want to please Him. (Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God–this is your true and proper worship.) What can you possibly offer God?……Yourself!

The bible is filled with what Gods will is. Here are a few things to get you started:

Galatians 5:13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray continually, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 6:33  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

1 Thessalonians 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;

Romans 12:1-2 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. ² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Dear God I’m available!  Use Me!  Lead me by the Holy Spirit.  Give me ears to hear for when you call on me.  I’m readying myself now waiting for your commands.  I know you want me to spread the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ so I’m already on the job with that!  In Jesus name. Amen

There are no pictures today. I’m in the middle of my prayer closet experience with God and I got right on my lap top to share what I’m going through with you at this moment..

I saw in a vision of many winged creatures around the throne. They were in a state of worship and I joined in with them. I found myself on the floor somewhere in front of the throne with wings flapping everywhere. I struggled to crawl for spot near the throne to worship God too. The worship was so intense as every being was in a state of excitement of worshipping God. (…Their wings were spread out above; each had two touching another being, and two covering their bodies. Ezekiel 1:11)

Then I looked out and saw the vastness of the universe. I was shocked at how big the universe is. I couldn’t see it all but I internally knew  somehow that it expanded forever. It made earth seem like a grain of sand. I’m shocked. I knew this was so but to see some of it and experience the reality of it was…shocking to me. ( It is I who made the earth and created mankind on it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts. Isaiah 45:12)

Then after seeing and experiencing this I felt all that Jesus did for us in coming to earth to put us right with God.   I was shocked again because we can’t understand the full effect of His allowing Himself to be separated from His Father and to be humiliated and put to death in that way for us. When we die and the dark glass is made clear and we get the full understanding of holiness, we will be….so grateful that we will fall on our face with such thanksgiving and awe! It’s a good thing that we will have a glorified body because when we realize how much we didn’t do for God and how we could have worshiped Him much more we would be so disappointed with ourselves.

The devil is sooooo jealous of us!!!!Why? Because we are so special to God! He’s made us His very own child. We will reign and rule with Jesus over God’s kingdom. (if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; 2 Timothy 2:12)

This thing is bigger than we could ever have imagined!!! Our minds can’t even wrap itself around just how great and mighty the Kingdom of God is!!!! Believe the whole word of God!!! Talk to God a lot! Be filled with the Spirit!! Seek more of God!! Speak in tongues and if you can’t… ask to be filled…want it. Do everything you can to get more of God!! This is really big! God is gigantic! Huge! Mind blowing! We all (His children) are very very very special to Him!!

Some of you may say…this chic is weird, strange, out there…but so is God. This is not my home! I belong to the kingdom of God and I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ or my strange adoption to Gods family.

I want to get as many people as I can to go deeper in God and for those who don’t know Him to be saved!! God bless you all!!!

1 Corinthians 2:9-11 Rather, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11For who among men knows the thoughts of man except his own spirit within him? So too, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.…

Many people believe in Jesus Christ but have not made Him Lord of their lives. Lord means someone having power over you. Making this person your master. It means you submit to their authority. You are totally committed to this person. You consider them first in all decisions in your life. They rule over you as you submit to them. Another word for having Lordship over someone is Adonai. Adonai meaning master, owner, father.

Roman 10:9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.           “JESUS IS MASTER!”

When we believed in Jesus we declared Him as being the supreme authority in the entire universe!! Our hearts and minds acknowledge His  lordship and eventually the entire creation will bow before Him one day and acknowledge His supremacy.

I accepted Jesus Christ in my life at the age of 12 watching Billy Graham on TV, but I didn’t become a committed Christian until 34 years old. This was when I gave up self and let God be first in my life and be in charge of my life. I stopped doing what I wanted for my life and started doing what He wanted for my life. I gave up my control over me. I wanted Jesus to be my master.

My whole focus and purpose in life was to do His will and to serve Him!!! I surrendered my whole self and put myself under Gods authority. My house whole was governed by His principals for living found in His word. My actions reflected Jesus Christ. I wanted to please my master all the time.

2 Corinthians 4 :5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. Jesus is Lord and master and we are here to serve Him as His servants.

Do I get this right all the time? Absolutely not!!! It’s so easy to fall back into old patterns like doing what I want to do and making my own decisions. Like controlling my own life and not putting God first. But the Holy Spirit reminds me of God’s word and I repent and get back on the right track with God. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:26

My point today… Is Jesus Christ your Lord…your master? When you call someone master…it’s a very humbling experience. It makes you want to bow down just saying those words and give yourself to someone to have ownership and control over you. On earth this word has not been a pleasant one for most people throughout history. It’s a very powerful word. But spiritually this word is the difference between having a close relationship to God or a lukewarm relationship with Him.

Will you ponder the word Lord today? Is Jesus your Lord and Master or just a friendly chap you say you have in your life to chat with once in a while when you’re in trouble or feeling a little down? ( No disrespect here just making a point.)

We are living in very very very dangerous, perilous, uncertain, and evil times. We all need to be in a good place with God. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me (Psalms 23:4)

For the LORD loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones…(Psalms 37:28)

If you give Jesus Lordship over your life and do what Jesus says do which is to: Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. (Psalms 37:3-5)  You will be so blessed! The master will care for you. He will help you! You will be able to get through anything!!

Dear Father God…I have been trying to handle my own life for so long but now I’m ready to give everything over to you. Thank you for watching over me even when I wanted to do things my way. Thank you for the Holy Spirit who gently leads me to focus on you. Thank you Jesus for going out of your way to put me right with the Father. I want to be right with you by becoming a committed Christian and making you Lord and master over my life! Forgive me. In Jesus name…Amen.

I surrender all

All to Jesus, I surrender;
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.

Refrain

I surrender all, I surrender all,
All to Thee, my blessèd Savior,
I surrender all.

All to Jesus I surrender;
Humbly at His feet I bow,
Worldly pleasures all forsaken;
Take me, Jesus, take me now.

Refrain

All to Jesus, I surrender;
Make me, Savior, wholly Thine;
Let me feel the Holy Spirit,
Truly know that Thou art mine.

Refrain

All to Jesus, I surrender;
Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power;
Let Thy blessing fall on me.

Refrain

All to Jesus I surrender;
Now I feel the sacred flame.
O the joy of full salvation!
Glory, glory, to His Name!

I’ve been wanting to share my experience for a long time with this difficult subject so today is the day I choose to share. First let me say that my present husband is a wonderful caring supportive man who has never mistreated me or said one mean thing to me in 40 years of marriage!

In my previous marriage that was not the case. The first week that I was married we had our first fist fight. Being that my parents never did this I didn’t know anything about it and I was like…”what in the world?” I fought back because I was like…”no He did not just hit me!” The first 3 years of this marriage were like Ali and Frasier regularly. Domestic violence was common in his family. I even fought when I was pregnant with our only child. But then things changed when he starting using drugs. He got really crazy and I was scared of Him.

Things got very dangerous for me and I had to be very careful. Anything would set Him off. It’s not necessary to go into graphic detail here you, I’m sure you get the point.   My newborn baby and my last night with him was the most violent and dangerous. I was so grateful that we were alive the next morning. I can see very clearly how God got me out of that horrible situation. A friend of mine came over to see me that morning. I know God sent her! I gave her the eye to let her know I was in trouble. She told my ex-husband that she needed to take me to get diapers. So I left with her and never went back. I lived in a two family house and the next day the other family called me to say that my ex-husband went crazy and tore up the house and all of our belongings. The police arrested him and took Him away.

They put him in a mental institution. He stalked me for a while but eventually I got a divorce and he moved to another state. I was scared for years after that because He had tried to kill me, continued to threaten me and take my daughter. But God didn’t let that happen.

Domestic violence is the most awful thing!! You do heal from it but the scars are there for life. When I hear stories of it happening to someone else it brings everything back to my mind of my own experiences. But I resist the enemy’s plan to take away the peace that God gave me about my situation and I pray for that person I heard was abused and move on.

The greatest lesson that I’ve had about this is learning to forgive. I forgave him very early in that ordeal and that was the biggest overcoming blessing for me. In fact my present husband and I had tried to help my ex-husband get back home to his family.

One of the most powerful songs I sing is called “For Every Mountain”.   It’s about the mountains that God get’s us over. I sing this song with everything I have in me because of all that God’s gotten me over.   I have survived not only domestic violence, but 4 of my babies in ICU, cancer, depression and suicide, a rare illness and much much more!!!

When I look back over my life I can see that God has ALWAYS watched over me and He ALWAYS will until that time when He lets go so that death can have its way and even then that will happen so He can bring me close to Him forever!

I was in my domestic violence situation for 4 years because I felt trapped there. There were no shelters back then. God was my shelter and he led me to safety. If there is anyone reading this being abused right now I want to tell you to get out…but be very careful and be very wise! Plan very carefully! There is help out there now!

Your greatest Help and strength comes from the Lord. Call on Him! Ask Him to help you!

Father God…I pray for every woman and child who is involved in this horrible situation of domestic violence to get the help they need ASAP. In Jesus name Amen.

1 Peter 5:7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

I pray that you will be encouraged today!

The Holy Spirit of God is inside of our human bodies the minute we became a child of God. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the trinity. This is a tremendous blessing to us more than we can ever realize. Jesus was with us and when Jesus left this earth He said He would send another helper and boy did He! God cannot get any closer to us than He is! He’s inside of us!!!!

1 Corinthians 6:19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit made us humans in Their image (Genesis 1:26). They also made us higher than the angels.

Hebrews 1: 13:14 But to which of the angels has He ever said, “Sit at My right hand, Until I make Your enemies A footstool for Your feet”?¹⁴ Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation? This is talking about us! We are all very special to God. You can see why lucifer would be so jealous of us. We are closer to God than the angels!

God created each of us in His heart and mind and then sent us to earth and one day we will return to God. Why? To be with God our Father!!!! This time we will be in Him instead of Him in us. His presence and Glory fills heaven and we will be in that glory. His presence will consume us without hurting us because Jesus will have presented us faultless. We will be enveloped with the presence of God!!!

I was in my prayer closet today and I asked God to help me explain experiences when I’m in my prayer closet with you. The above thought is what I’ve tried to share for years and just could not put it in the right words. “WE WILL BE ENVELOPED WITH THE PRESENCE OF GOD IN HEAVEN FOR ALL ETERNITY!!!!!”  

I yearn to be with God!!!!! The more I pray and read His word… the more I hunger for Him. I’m so thankful that I have the Holy Spirit in me because He helps satisfies my longing to be with God. I want to feel the full blast of God’s Glory and His love for me as much as humanly possible in my life on earth!!!! I look forward to my eternal destiny. I think about my mom who loved God so much and that she and my brother are receiving God’s magnificent love right now.

To keep my heart and mind encouraged and focused on God I think about:

1. I am higher than the angels and in fact they are ministering beings to help and protect me.
2. That lucifer hated the fact that God’s plan was to give me an inheritance of the kingdom.
3. That God had a plan before the world to put me right with Him and adopt me into His family and let me live with Him forever.
4. He sent His only Son to implement His plan for my salvation and that Jesus finished the work!
5. I am so loved by God and He has a perfect plan for my life.
6. Nothing will ever separate Him from me.
7. Jesus is interceding for me right now.

Pondering these things all day every day keeps my head in the place I need it to be to bring God honor until He calls for me to come back home to Him. But I can tell you…I want Him NOW!!! If I can feel His love like this now… how much more of Him is there? I want Him!!!!! I need Him. That’s what keeps me motivated to endure all the trials of this life. God will one day wipe away every one of my tears. He will keep me in a place where no evil will ever affect me. My body will never get sick again. I will feel His love for me continually forever. I want Him!!!! I need Him!!

God doesn’t want anything before Him in my life because of His love for me and because of all He did to create me and save my soul. God owns me!! I’m His!!! He has the RIGHT to have preeminence in my life!!!! Exodus 34:14 Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

In my prayer closet and throughout my day… I spend a lot of time telling God how much I love Him.   This is what I do with the majority of my time in prayer with Him. Sure I make my prayer request known to Him also and intercede for others but I want to worship and adorn Him because He deserves it!!

I tell you this from my heart today. I love God like mad!! I try hard to love what He loves. I try hard to do what He says do. I hunger after Him for dear life!! . I Love Him with everything that I am. WE CAN GET REALLY CLOSE TO GOD BECAUSE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT!!!! We should burn inside for more of God! Make God be all over you because you are  worshipping Him and loving Him so much! He loves that!!! He will inhabit  you when you do that!! It’s so incredible to feel His glory and anointing when you worship Him that intensely.

Don’t look at the trials you’re going through and try to worship and love God that way. Trials are trials and should have nothing to do with you being madly in love with God. Jesus said that He will take our yokes and heavy burdens. Give your trials to Jesus and praise God!

I pray today that you understand what I’m trying to say which is to love God with all of your mind, body, heart and Soul. This is a very special time your life and you will never get this opportunity to worship God this way. You’re only human once. When we die we will have a whole different physical form and will be with God in a whole new way. React now to His love for you!

1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning

Our whole lives and reason for being is ALL ABOUT GOD!!! It always has been. While we are here on earth we seem to think life has to do with us…our wants, needs and desires. I tell you that it’s all about the creator…our precious Father God!!!! All Praise be to God our Father who loves us so!

Psalms 84:2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

This is a picture that I painted last year of what I see sometimes in my prayer closet.  God is a Spirit and He is light, glory and all powerful.  His presences consumes me when I’m very deep in prayer.  I see a bright light.  I’m not saying this is what God looks like but only what He choses to  let me see so that I can feel His presence as I yearn for Him and worship Him!  He will reveal Himself to all who desire more of Him.

Luke 22:42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

Revelations 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

We know that Jesus drank from that cup for our sins which is known as the wrath of God. He knew that this was going to be so awful that this happened to Him when He prayed to God about His upcoming sacrificial act:

Luke 22:43-44 Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.

Jesus prayed so hard that an angel had to come and strengthen Him. In His travail He was in agony!! He was sweating so bad that it looked like blood dripping down His face. That was some very very very intense praying!!!! Jesus had been really cool about everything in His life up to this point. (Except when they disrespected His Father’s house).  I asked myself why was He so stressed out. He was human so I believe He was stressed. Many people had been beaten and crucified before Him. Many people in 2016 are sitting on death row but I don’t think they are as stress as Jesus was.

I believe that having zillions of peoples sin placed on Him was a heavy load for sure. When you think of all the nasty, dirty, disgusting, horrible things aka sins, that’s in the hearts of man you can see how this would seem like a unbearable task for Jesus. He indeed did finish His work here on earth but as I was pondering how hard he was praying I had a disturbing thought about Jesus situation. Could the cup He was about to suffer also be something else in addition?

There is one thing that God can not do…and that is to look at sin. God is Holy and cannot deal with sin whatsoever!  He could not look upon Jesus at that special moment in time.

Matthew 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

God had to abandon Jesus!!! Because He was baring our sin! Yes Jesus was fully God but Jesus had a very difficult job to do for God which required God to look away from His obedient Son. Even if it was only briefly this had to be so hard that Jesus reacted by praying in advance for God to maybe have another way this could be accomplished. There was no other way!!

Jesus does not want us to forget what He did for us. I don’t think we really understand what it feels like to have God turn His back on us. We only know the opposite which is the relief we felt when God turned His back around toward us and hugged us. You know that we were His enemy before salvation.

None of us could have done what Jesus did on that cross!!! I think when we get to heaven and the truth of what Jesus did for us can be fully realized by us we will fall down at His feet in awe. This knowledge is way beyond our capacity to understand in our human form. In my heart I feel it but it’s muffled. As I pondered Jesus pain I heard Him screaming in sheer terror when He forsaken by His Father on the cross. It was a terrifying, blood curdling scream!!!

For me personally I celebrate Jesus death and resurrection communion by myself several times a week with bread and grape juice. After some people pass away people will put a sign on the back of their car that says “We will never forget.” I feel that way about Jesus. I WILL NEVER FORGET WHAT HE HAS DONE FOR ME!!!! NEVER!

JESUS WOULD NEVER HAVE GOTTEN OFF THAT CROSS FOR YOU AND ME!!!

JESUS WOULD NEVER HAVE GOTTEN OFF THAT CROSS FOR YOU AND ME!!!

JESUS WOULD NEVER HAVE GOTTEN OFF THAT CROSS FOR YOU AND ME!!!

As I was pondering about this the other day tears came to my eyes. I thought oh my goodness…Jesus really loves me so much!! I know Jesus will do anything for His sheep but nothing would have made Him get off that cross for our eternal souls.  Nothing!!!  Jesus was determined to save us!!!!!

There are 3 reasons why He wouldn’t get off the cross:

1. Because He was obedient to His Father.
2. Because He loves us.
3. To put us right with God.

John 10:18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

Who else in the entire universe would do that for you and me? So much was done by a supernatural being for His creations! A lot of thought was put into our existence! We are special to God! We are blessed! Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

I wrote some new words to Jesus loves me:

Jesus loves me this I know….because His suffering told me so

Riddled with sin did we belong…..we were saved because He was strong

Yes Jesus loves me… Yes Jesus loves me… Yes Jesus loves me

His suffering told me so!

Although this is Good Friday and it is a day to remember for sure…we should remember Good Friday every single days of our lives because of our gratefulness to Jesus and this scriptures verse which are Jesus own words to us: Luke 22:19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” He said to remember Him shedding His blood for us.

THANK YOU JESUS FOR ALL YOU DID AND ARE DOING FOR ME! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! Nobody loves me as much as you do!

God help those who reflect on Jesus sacrifice today to realize how much you love them and how blessed they are. In Jesus name…amen.