God Speaks I Listen

Psalms 23:2   He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters,

Everyone is talking about going green these days……well I am going green spiritually.  The Lord promised me green pastures.  These green pastures were not gorgeous green grass like at the botanical gardens, but precious nurturing fresh growing grass shooting out of the rocks by a calm refreshing ever flowing river.  The shepherd knew he could always bring his sheep there for sustenance and refreshing rest.  The green grass in that pasture was like gold to a Shepherd.  

The shepherd would gently and lovingly guide his valued flock there.  We too have a shepherd and He was the first to go green and it is for us who love the Lord and have made Him the head of our lives.  This green is a provision of the good Shepherd and He takes this very seriously.

I can tell you that whenever I am going through a very difficult time I look to God and I tell you for a fact that He has taken me to these green pastures and I have sat beside the still waters.  This life is a journey for us and we need help…….we are trying to make it until we get home.  This reminds me of a gospel song I know:

Rough Side Of The Mountain

Verse 1:
Oh Lord, I’m strivin’,
tryin’ to make it through this barren land,
but as I go from day to day,
I can hear my Savior say,
“trust me child, come on and hold my hand.”

Chorus:
I’m comin’ up on the rough side of the mountain,
I must hold to God, His powerful hand.
I’m comin’ up on the rough side of the mountain,
I’m doin’ my best to make it in.

Chorus

Verse 2:
I’m comin’ up Lord, although my burdens
sometime they press me down,
but if I can only keep this faith
I’ll have strength just to run this race;
I’m lookin’ for my starry crown.

Chorus

Verse 3:
This old race will be soon be over,
there’ll be no more race for me to run.
And I will stand before God’s throne,
all my heartaches will be gone,
I’ll hear my Savior say, “welcome home”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjPhz-Ec7yk

Today look to the Lord and let Him lead you to the nourishing green grass and beside the peaceful waters………go green let God provide your daily sustenance.  Do you know anyone else that can do this for you?  All the money in the world can’t do this; other people can’t provide this…..Only God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit can do this!  I know this for a fact….the bible says it and I have personal experienced it.  You try it……go green!!!!!

Message for today: Be smart…give yourself a break and go green. (Trust the good Shepherd and let Him lead you.)

Genesis 1:1,24,25  1in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

²⁴ And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. ²⁵ God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

“Hey we’ve been sitting around here in these cages waiting to become one of those humans.  They come here and visit us making those crazy faces and throwing  food at us.  I’m sick of it…..we’ve been waiting for centuries.  I’m still really hairy and I don’t see anything changing on me yet!  Why why why?  My mother keeps telling me to have hope, that one day we’ll have a house in the burbs and we’ll get us one of those SUV’s we see all the humans driving around in, but me…. I just want one of those Xbox’s.

Some of us  monkey’s get to live in a house and they dress us up like humans and they even give us jobs in what they call a circus.  Is that a good thing I wonder?  I’ve heard stories you know.

I wonder what color I’ll be. Most of us have black and brown hair ya know…maybe I can dye my hair to get a different look…..I heard a Mohawk is in too.   They say that a being named God created us to be monkeys and that the first man He ever created named us.  I think this is who we are going to be forever but I don’t want to accept that. Did you know the humans made a movie about our relatives taking over this planet…wow!  Maybe we can demand to get a flat screen TV and Netflix.  I’m beginning to think we are just doomed to just sit in these cages and jump around like the monkeys we are and will always be.  Shhh! One of the humans is coming………”

Message for today: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Acts 7:59-60 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” ⁶⁰ Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.

The story of Stephen in the book of Acts is a horrifying true story of a wonderful dedicated man who was filled with grace and the Holy Spirit of God.  He was martyred for His faith in the true word of God.  Stephen was in the worst situation a person can face and that is imminent death.  This man with his last breaths of life prayed and called on the name of Jesus.  He prayed for himself…for God to receive him and he prayed for others and then died.  He prayed to the very end of his life.

In any situation we face in life our first thought should be to pray.  It does not have to be long…..let me repeat that…..it does not have to be long but fervent.  Fervent means very intense prayer with deep conviction and total sincerity of heart.

 (Please note that when you are in your prayer closet for worship to the Lord this type of prayer can last hours. If you call a friend to chat you can talk very long, but if you called that friend because of a crisis you would talk firmly and to the point; this is that type of prayer I’m refering to here, fervant prayer.)

Here is a piece of advice that I believe will serve you well for the rest of your life here on earth…….

CALL ON JESUS FOR ANY AND ALL SITUATIONS….. TRIALS, SUDDEN TERROR, EMERGENCIES, NEEDS OR TEMPTATIONS YOU MAY EVER FACE!!!!!!!! 

 The bible saids to throw all your cares on Him and Stephen did this.  Stephens’s prayer was answered in a most amazing way.  No man can see God and live and It says Stephen saw God…..not a vision…..he saw God and Jesus siting by His side with the power of the Holy Spirit they swooped Stephens spirit right up to glory and ALL his pain and trouble was gone. Halleluia!!! Glory to God.

Hint: Stephen was a praying man full of the Holy Spirit before His situation. This is something to meditate on and copy what he did.

We all are going to face trying situations in our lives and some more than others and the best thing we can do for ourselves and it’s what God tell us in the bible…..is to pray all the time without stopping.  Our brother Jesus when He was a man did this.  He was facing a horrifying situation and He knew it would be unto death.  He prayed and prayed very intensely.

Someone reading this today might be facing a very difficult time in your life right now and I hope this blog  has helped you in some way.  You can always request prayer in the sidebar and always feel free to post your testimony of the victories God gives you.  It will encourage others.

Message for today:  Pray….Pray….Pray

1 Peter 2:11 Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. (NLT)

I am a born again believer, a Christian, a child of God and this earth is NOT my home. I’m happy to be alive and on this earth, but the biblical fact is I never was meant to stay here because a home is being prepared for me and it’s real and I’m going.

John 14:1-4 Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”

One of my favorite songs is Home, which is the song from the movie and play called The Wiz.

Every time I hear that song I think of my heavenly home and I smile. Heaven is where I started out. One day when I was in deep prayer God told me I started out as a thought in His mind and then He gave me life through my earthly mom and dad. For a child who grew up thinking I was a mistake because of a learning disability , God’s comment to me meant more than I could say. I cried and cried at the thought that I didn’t just happen to be here on earth, I was a planned pregnancy from my Father in heaven. No matter how we arrive on this planet, we were not an afterthought but planned from the heart of God. Halleluiah!!

Psalms 139: 13-17 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!

So you can see why in my heart I long for home. Someone who loves me so much is there and He’s planned for me to be there with Him one day. Many members of my family are there already. I have two brothers I’ve never seen. My brother Mervin Mckelvin who got to go very early at the age of 2 years old and my brother Jesus who I know because we share the same Spirit and I’ll get to see them both face to face. He told me He will come and get me if I don’t come there first.

I’m waiting brother….I got on my good pajamas….(smiling here)….come back and take me……….home! ( Read archived post on the good pajamas)

Message for today: It won’t be long before we go home. Do what you can while you’re here…..and always keep your heavenly home on your heart.

P.S. “When I think of Home I do a happy dance in my heart!!”

Subtitle – Getting along with other people

John 13: 34-35 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

I am very shy and at times introverted. I don’t like getting into confrontations with other people. If I perceive another person to be the confrontational type I will leave them alone. I’ll say hello of course but will not get buddy buddy with them. This attitude might have been OK if I was not a Christian but I am one. The scripture above is not a suggestion, it’s a command.

When I first became a Christian the Lord gave me many lessons on this. One day in my prayer closet time He told me I needed to work on my attitude toward people. As I had my eyes closed I saw a vision of a large pair of eye glasses. God told me they were Jesus glasses and He told me to put them on and to remember I had them on at all times. He said that when I had them on I would see people how Jesus sees them. Who likes wearing glasses……nobody. These glasses made me see people in a different light and I also saw myself…my heart in a different way. Ouch! That sure hurt.

So here I was with my new eye/Jesus glasses and I tell you I could see clearly. There were no excuses….couldn’t hide from folks anymore. Then I got my first big lesson…uh oh!
I was at a women’s meeting in my church and there was a woman there that I never liked. I felt she was kinda mean and puffed up. Maybe she was… maybe that’s how I perceived her ….it really didn’t matter to God because He knew my heart. While I was sitting in that meeting, the Lord told me to get up and confess my feelings about her.

I told God (in my mind God and I was having this big conversation) you want me to do what? So when the group leader stopped talking for a moment I raised my hand and asked if I could say something and I told the group my confession and they all looked stunned especially the woman who it was about. I apologized and went over and hugged her shocked body. Everybody was like…well alrighty then.

I will never forget that lesson and there were others but not as hard as that test. I really needed that test though because: “HOW CAN I PRAY FOR PEOPLE OR HELP ANYBODY IF I DON’T LOVE THEM????? I can’t. My prayer life will go nowhere. If I’m going to be a prayer intercessor (and I am) there is no way I can be one without LOVE in my heart for all God’s creations. God so loved the world and He gave up His only Son….. So If I love God so much and I do, I need to love what He loves.

Did you ever go to the Eye Doctor (and you know what doctor I’m talking about) and get you Jesus glasses? You’ll never be the same. Now don’t get all scared….He’s not going to give you my lesson ( I hope LOL) He deals with us individually. So please do wear those bible prescribed Jesus glasses. I can see clearly the rain will fall….the rain of God’s blessings for being obedient to John 14: 34-35.

Message for today: It’s better to wear the Jesus glasses than to stumble around and be limited in what you can do for the Lord.