A Fork In The Road

There was a time when I was afraid of saying what I felt God was showing me or offending people. That day is gone. Years of trying to appease people have come to an end. The fear of man has been stripped from my life. I've learned (the hard way) whoever will walk with you will. Whoever doesn't will find a reason or excuse not to. The lack of focus on things eternal and shaping our lives based on things that are temporal has been a pet- peeve of mine for many years but now I realize That I'm not in conflict with it. I just have a vision and goal that does not deal with some things others will pursue or accomplish. Nothing is worse than a person not doing what God has called them to do with evidence of that unquenchable passion. The mistake is trying to get somebody else to have that same drive when that is not necessarily what God has for them. As humans we like our point of view to be in the forefront and usually don't listen to what others are saying. Rather we get offended and prepare our thoughts to respond and correct. Well I have learned to listen to people because their heart can be revealed through their words. Many people miss out on things because of this simple fact. The necessity to be right outweighs the opportunity to hear someone's heart or to learn. What I have also learned is that many people who have been familiar with you can't receive what God has given you a lot of times. It takes a mature person to have the ability to separate you from what God is speaking through you. How many of Jesus' family members were his disciples? This is the reason why some relationships are seasonal. The liberty of Christ supersedes race, class, culture, tradition and any mindset. To embrace Christ we have to die to ourselves. When someone lets go and another holds the level of agreement is lowered. When you agree it can be established but disagreement separates. We need to let the Lord do what needs to be done with these relationships and let Him lead us to a deeper more intimate relationship where we lay down what we think we know for what God says.

Full Circle.

I know i don't blog with any frequency or consistency but I really don't write online unless something really strikes me or I want feedback. I have been going through a transition where basically I don't know how this is going to end up. With basically my life plan going up in smoke 2 or so years ago I have been in survival mode. i have moved away and returned and now am part of a new ministry which i know the Lord purposed. Funny thing i wasn't headed home at all. i was moving to Columbus from WV. Then that familiar voice I know told me to just go home and God provided the way there. Not that the last two years were a total waste. I did get to experience many things and travel to Florida, Nicaragua and go to the International House of Prayer in Kansas City for my first time and met many gracious and wonderful people but it was really a season for me to recoup and learn and be before the Lord. He birthed a desire for me to start a House of prayer similar to IHOP's 24 hour format on the east coast as well as a ministry training center that also teaches practical and technical excellence in media and the arts. (Always wondered why I was a perfectionist.) Being a part of the local body of Speak The Word Christian Church and being reunited with old friends has restored some things to remembrance as this two year journey has added clarity to the vision God gave me at the age of ten. This is just a reminder that God is in control and that what He has purposed for our lives will come to pass. God shows us where we're going but not always the way we going to have to take to get there.

A new day...a new journey.

There are times in your life you just have to recognize that your life is what it is. Your past is what it is and what you do now will determine your future. Once thought to be my greatest asset is now a vice being removed. My personal defense system. Yes I will admit I blocked people from getting close to me and even misled people to believe I'm something I'm not for them to keep their distance. Some things will never change with me though. My greatest relationships are built and based on transparency, trust and honesty. I love my sincere friends and am leery when a relationship is built on what i have to offer and not who God is making me or who I am. As for my defense system it was based on fear of failure. You don't have to fail if you don't try. Other times it was settling for I knew in my heart what wasn't God's best for me at that time. (I will not clarify that statement with situations I'd leave that a mystery.) Basically I either dropped the ball or just did something that was just comfortable but not right. The thing is when you get closer to God your standards and way of living continue to rise to new levels. You need people who will grow with you and not compete with you. I am secure in who I am in Christ and don't need to prove it by religious ritual or quoting scripture. It's who I am. I'm being perfected by God as I live my life for Him. Now in my life is an emergence of a drive I haven't had for years that the circumstances of the last few year chipped away at to destroy. I am not fearful and scared into doing something based on the fear of loss. I am confident God is who He is and what He has for me is better than anything I can ask or even think. No pressure just letting patience work it's perfect work my only commitment is to God. The temptation had been was to try to fit into boxes and plans people had for me. No longer. I won't chase after approval I just really want God and who God has to walk this journey with me. I want to connect in the spirit and not know people according to the flesh. I want something that words can't describe but my spirit can bear witness with. I have settled for counterfeits in the past but now is a new day and a new way and my journey beings now.

Good Morning

When it comes to my life and Christian walk I always know there is room for improvement. As I get older I'm starting to realize that to remain hungry for the things of God the people you associate and connect become a big part of that. There are friends and relationship that are seasonal and then there re those that last a lifetime. Iron sharpens iron. We all have our specialties due to our assignment but these God given relationships bring balance to each other. I thank God for these friends and co-laborers that God has connected me to in my life. As I enter this new season in life and ministry I know that these relationships and the dynamics of them may change as always but I know one thing for sure. God has blessed me with everyone I have been in contact this last year. It has been a harder year than I let on and one of digging deep inside and rebuilding foundations and settling issues. The fear of man which once plagued my life is gone and the boldness someone prophesied years ago has replaced it. We do not ask to go through the things we need we pray for God to take us out of the fire but it is the fire that refines us. The way God works with his children is remarkable in the fact that in a moment where frustration tried to flood me that a child looking for pen with an innocent trust in her eyes would remind me that I am just going through here and the purposes and dreams God showed me at the age of ten are still alive and in His hands being written one chapter at a time on the stone of my life. Ministry is my purpose and drive. I am called to serve, to love and to show God wherever I am to His glory. I realize that my life is an opportunity for those to know Christ. I trust the shaping hands of the potter more than ever. I pray that the presence of the Lord just follow you as we worship with our lives by just fulfilling what He has purposed for us in the earth.

The Will of God

The Will of God for your life is something that cannot be determined by anyone but the Lord. People always want to bind you to an idea or mindset by using "Thus saith the Lord...", "This is what God told me..." or " I believe the Lord is saying...". A simple thing if God hasn't told or revealed it to you in prayer or His Word or a source that would have no privy to that information I suggest you put up a red flag. Sadly we live in a age where most people take almost all pulpit sermons as complete gospel and don't get into the Bible and study it for themselves. I didn't say books and commentaries about the Bible. I said the Bible the 66 book component of our faith. God confirms what he has said through others but as a minister I am very clear about things being my opinion and always suggest people consult with the Lord. Being born again for 25 years I've seen many good and bad things in church and ministry. The most dangerous is somebody saying you have to do something because God told them that. I've seen people change life direction because they have received a "word" and it destroyed what God was building through them. First of all things from God don't happen outside of His order and the authority He set over you. Yes the Holy Spirit uses us to encourage each other and edify but spiritual direction and life choices is another matter that this blog won't leave me time to get into deeply. Some people are like Miriam and Aaron...

(Num. 12:1 And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. 2 And they said, HATH THE LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken aLSO BY US? AND THE LORD heard it . )

...they speak against leadership because something they find wrong with them but not doing as David did recognize that God placed Saul there and don't touch God's anointed. God dealt with Saul but it was never through David. People with this attitude is what I like to call "parking lot prophets" who want to put their '2 cents" in and always have a "word". This is manipulation at it's worst. There is no authority, covering or even respect for the things of God because it's operating outside of His order. When I find out there is no covering over a ministry you cannot pay me to stay there. There is no accountability, no authority and no correction because they are out on their own. Another scenario is someone like King Saul who disobeys but in his mind he believes he hears from the Lord. He was a rebel from when He took it into his own hands to offer the sacrifice right before Samuel arrived. His fear of acceptance and what he wanted tainted God's instruction and ended up in his torment and demise. His rebellion led to witchcraft (trying to control and manipulate others through natural and unnatural means) and his stubbornness led to him idolizing his own opinion over the COMMAND of God.

(1 Samuel 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word oF THE LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.)

We must know that when God directs and guides us He knows who we respect, who is over us and what to tell them to say so we know only God could have told them that. As for somebody saying "god told me and you have to do..," we know God speaks to the person or they sense things in their spirit man a peace that confirms it's God or an unrest that lets us know we need to not do this. God's will is in His Word. He does not force man into doing anything. He wants us to obey. He made us free moral agents with the right to choose. A legalistic religious person will beat you over the head and try to make you feel bad about not doing something they feel God told them about. That's not an obligation for you they have to deal with that. Don't let manipulation, desperation, or settling determine what you should do. Seek the Lord and don't let pressure push you into a decision you may regret. Then don't let condemnation and people's reactions have the power to keep you there. Walk in the liberty Christ has given you to fulfill the purpose and plan he put you on the earth for.

Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

The Leaven of The Pharisees

Holy Spirit has been revealing some things to me since I've been in prayer asking him to reveal his perfect will for my life. As I was reading through the life of Christ again I realized that even Satan had tried to use God's Word twisted by his own agenda against Christ. This was duplicated through the Pharisees who used tradition or what "status quo" religion was for the day against the Word of God made flesh. There is a difference between conviction and condemnation. There is crossing the line and speaking things you have no authority to. The Apostle Paul even retracted words to the High Priest once he was informed who he was. God places people in authority through office and his order. Relationship is not authority. Friendship is not that authority. David would not lay a hand on King Saul. Was Saul wrong? Yes, but David respecting God's authority did not step out of line of God's order. We make judgments when we have no clue what's going on. My closets friends have excellent communication with each other and part of it is really understanding the relationship and the authority that we have with each other. A person crosses the line when they deal in thing that the Lord did not tell them to address or they do not have the authority to address. Another problem is getting advice from other people about a situation they know nothing about or have no authority in. This destroys relationships because now assumption and trying to do the job of Holy Spirit comes into play. From experience the natural and spiritual authority has had the Word from God for my situation because God doesn't violate His own order to accomplish something. When you say and do things that God has not purposed to happen you create wounds and anything else worsens a already sensitive situation. You do not know what is in a person's mind. God is the author and finisher of our faith and he is the one who ultimately know what we really need. Sheep don't correct sheep that is why you have a shepherd. The leaven of the Pharisees is to get he public consensus against what is biblical. It sounds close enough to the truth but it is twisted with another agenda. We need to stop trying to be fruit inspectors and deal with what god gave us to deal with. The Pharisees used their authority to resist the authority of the Son of God and then plotted to kill him when they knew who he was (sounds like the parable of the vineyard owner and his son). That attitude has a form of godliness but is a rebel at heart resisting authority and tearing down to gain superiority, It is self righteous in nature proving itself by it's works but there is not love (agape) which is God himself. It is religious practice. The road of Christ is self denial and humility. Submission to God. Jesus said He only does what He sees His Father do. We can get a bunch of people to agree and call someone out but how often can we restore someone in the spirit of meekness. Do we go into the Word of God to set somebody straight or look into the mirror of the Word and be changed. Only you can answer that honestly and truthfully. Selah.

Matthew 16:12
Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

Who is your confidence in?

I can admit I m a goal oriented person. There was a time where that and opinions were my barometer of how I felt about myself. Then I went to the other extreme and didn't care at all. Over the years I've discovered a very numerous amount of gifts, skills and talents in my life. With the former mindset it gave liberty to put my trust in that instead of my relationship with God. I mean if you lose focus you can not only depend on your gifts and talents you can also try to use them to prove yourself to others. Having confidence in anything other than God makes whatever that thing is an idol. This lifestyle can lead to a diminish of your prayer life. You think you're fine but your confidence is truly not in God. The truth is those things put before God we will lose. There are things that God wanted me to let go of during my life that I refused and lost anyway. Without God relationships can't have proper boundaries. I recently was having a discussion with a friend and I told them what God had told me to do in a situation but they just continued to press their perspective and proceeded to give advice that wasn't asked for. The thing is like Saul if we get a stubborn with our mindset our own ideas can even become idolatry. We don't have the right to tell somebody something other than God has directed them. If our confidence is in ourselves we think we have all the answers but we all find out there is only one God. (Yahweh) So let us examine ourselves daily to see who our confidence is in. When God tells you to do something it's not a good idea it's His will. When I pray for somebody or something daily I need to humble myself and seek God's will in these situations. His will is in His Word. I always find His Word bubbles inside of me concerning things. Whatever God leads you to do always lines up with His Word. We need to put our trust in the Lord as we pray for His kingdom to come and will be done on earth as it is in heaven.


Psalm 71:1 IN THEE, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.

Psalms 73:28 But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.