by mondayslife | Aug 19, 2018 | humility, Mondays Life, Obedience, pride, Wait on God
If I am Heading In The Wrong Direction, Please Help Me!
I was driving Saturday morning heading to a meeting and listening to the local classical channel. On Saturdays they have young people from around the world perform live on the broadcast. There was a young violinist who was very talented and gifted. After she played so skillfully, she was asked about an incident of her very first and only piano recital. Coming from a family of musicians, she decided to pick up the piano after seeing her mother conduct lessons and she concluded that it looks so easy to master! After weeks of practicing the left hand and then the right, when put together, it was a train wreck!
When the recital came, because she wasn’t so good as she expected to be, she had to have her mother play the right hand she played the left. After the recital, her supportive grandparents told her that even though we support you in everything you do, you have to give up piano because it is not for you. The grandparents suggested that she play the violin and she became one of the greatest violinist in the family.
Just imagine doing a task or picking up a hobby with such pride only to be told you need to give it up? How many of us are in situations now that we are not good in but we have no one to tell us to give it up and let me help you find your lane? I’ve been around people that talk so bad about how someone is not good at doing hair, teaching, playing football, or whatever it was, and then turn around and applaud them for doing well.
There is a difference of developing your talent overtime and becoming better and just being in the wrong lane when it comes to your talent. Have we ever see someone do something such as the piano or give a speech and say instantly, I can do that too. If not even better! When it came down to it, you were terrible! Pride will cause us to jump at things and having no knowledge of what it takes to becoming the best. Pride is mistaken for confidence all the time and destroys a person every time.
“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling.” Walking in humility is the key. We have to remember everything we have comes from God.Our talent, ability, gifts and skills comes from the father.- Proverbs 16:18
It is the goal to have people around you that you trust to tell you the truth. I rather have someone tell me that it is not working out and provide my suggestions or instructions, rather than wasting time and resources in an area that I will not prosper in. It is all about discerning the grace over your life. If God has not given you the grace to prevail in an area, you will know it because things will not work out and you will not hear the instructions of God. But I pray that you walk in your purpose and embrace the lane God has you in.
by mondayslife | May 1, 2018 | Bible, Decisions, direction, Mondays Life, Obedience, Purpose, wisdom
God WILL GIVE you the solution to a problem.
I remember I had to design project that I could not figure out how to do it. God showed me in a dream step by step on how to accomplish it. As I was waking up out the dream, I said “God show me again” and He did.
Instead of me spending hours and hours on a project, it only took me less the ten minutes to do.
If you have a difficult task in front of you, pray! God will give you the solution to your problem. The answer is right in front of you.
“Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the lad a drink.”
Genesis 21:19 NASB
by mondayslife | Aug 28, 2017 | Bible, Church, Decisions, direction, Goals, heavenly minded, Mondays Life, Obedience, Purpose, Spiritual Gifts
This weekend I met with one of my mentors. I knew that it was long over due to do a “check-in” because I have been off in certain areas of my life. So usually on Saturdays after church, I would go and do something else such as hanging out with the saints or go do work. But the Holy Spirit would not let me do anything else except to go and visit my mentor.
The last time I met with my mentor, I could not do anything but cry. But this time I felt better than before. I recently had a meltdown but kept it between God and I. But when I talked to her, she know exactly what I was still wrestling with and it was not doing what I was called to do. But here’s the catch: I thought I was doing what I was called to do. She says to me, “What good is the knowledge you obtain and keep it to yourself? You are a teacher right?” I rolled my eyes (smile)!
How many times have we bogged down our schedule to avoid what God is calling for us to do? I never really thought that I was not doing what I was supposed to do because I was making other things happen. Good works, but not God’s Appointed Work at this time. I was doing busy work rather than the work God wanted for me to do. My main gifting is teaching. I am learning that you cannot ask God what is next in your life if you have not done the first directive He has given you. We may dance around our directive and try to cover it up with “good works”, but the directive and demand is still out there. I believe that many of us experience chaos and uneasiness in our spirits because we have not allowed the priorities of God to become our priorities. When the command of God does not fit in our mold or will, we would quickly table it or dismiss it. There are some things that are purposely on hold because we have not done the first pre-requisite required to move on. If you are delaying what needs to be done, you are causing more trouble for yourself. Delayed obedience is disobedience.
It reminds me of a video game. When you are one level trying to go to the next, you get to the end of the level and ready to move on, you cannot because there was something you were suppose to do in order to move on. So you go back and scratch your head trying to figure out what did I miss? You say to yourself that you are ready to move on, but there is one thing you have to grab or do in order to move on. It could be a small directive. But that small directive can catapult you to where you need to be. It can cause you to skip a level or advance you further than you could imagine.
If we are one of God’s children, then we must be in obedience to his will on a daily basis. Luke 9:23 says that, “Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” We must deny what we think is right. We must deny what we want to do and pick up the Will of God. For God’s Word and Will will continuously light up our pathway to the way that we need to go. Do not delay the directive God has given you. If you are in a standstill and cannot figure out why, go back and make sure you are carrying out or have already carried out God’s last directive for your life.
by mondayslife | Apr 24, 2017 | Bible, Calm, Church, Deliverance, heavenly minded, Love, Mondays Life, Obedience, Peace, Wait on God, wisdom
When I left the house this morning, I felt the urge to pray. It was hard for me to pray a certain prayer because I knew that it was a prayer against my will and plans. God gave me a word a while back that in a few months, a change is going to occur. Being antsy and tired of the current situation that I am in, I tried to rush the process and the timing of God. I know from experience, rushing the timing of God is never a good thing. So I laid down my will right in the car. I said to God, “I will wait for you. I do not want my flesh to get in the way of your promises for me”.
When I got to work, the spirit of the Lord hit me while getting coffee. I began to cry, “Lord, calm my raging soul”. My soul is trying to get what it wants and I do not want to receive anything God has for me outside the timing of God. I believe that my soul is not at ease because I have not found my resting place in God. Like a baby who is irritated and fussy and cannot communicate to its parent what is wrong, my soul was in the same state. I realized that I needed more than just a vacation or to sleep more, but I need the love of the Father to cradle me and say it will be OK.
In the book, “The Battlefield of the Mind” by Joyce Meyers says that, “The rest that God offers us is not from physical work, but a rest for souls- a rest that operates as we go about daily life and take care of the responsibilities… If you are truly believing God and trusting Him, we have entered into rest (Heb 4:3)… You can speak His word to your raging soul and tortured mind just as Jesus spoke to the wind and waves and said, “Hush, be still. (Mark 4:39)”.
When your soul becomes uneasy, begin to pray in the spirit and tell your soul to hush and be still. “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). When you have nagging desires and your flesh is trying to rise up and causing you to feel anxious, remember we serve a God who is ABLE TO KEEP you from falling. Stay in the rest and comfort of God for it is your protection and safety net.
by mondayslife | Mar 20, 2017 | Church, Decisions, Deliverance, God Great, Love, Mondays Life, Obedience, Praying, Stand, Wait on God, wisdom
Anger can take over a person in an instant. When we act out of anger, we do not think first. We act first. In result can lead to detrimental issues. Proverbs 14:17 says that, “A quick-tempered man acts foolishly, And a man of evil devices is hated.”
The other day, being in a rush, I closed my computer too quickly and the computer shut down completely on its own. In result, I lost a portion of revisions that I was working on. I had never gotten so angry in my life. I was at the church and I could not let anyone see how angry I was. I immediately left and stood at my car. I was slamming things, yelling, about to pull my hair out because I just lost 2 hours worth of work.I could not get in the car to drive because I knew I would speed out of anger. I knew the Holy Spirit was coaching me through the whole thing because as I was driving, there was a sense of ease or calmness that came over me all of a sudden. The whole drive home, the Holy spirit had to coach me through the whole thing. Even though I just lost 2 hours of work, I was going to stay up for hours to catch back up. But the Lord rest assured in me that all was not lost.
When you are angry and emotional, you have to quickly shift to wisdom. Wisdom told me to leave the church quickly. Wisdom told me not to hop in the car and speed off. Wisdom caused peace to go through my mind and body. Wisdom told me that all is not lost. Being emotional without wisdom is mania! It causes you to become crazy and emotionally driven. That is why the enemy fights against us to receive knowledge and wisdom! We need to get wisdom to handle our emotions. Proverbs 14:29 says that, “He who is slow to anger has great understanding, But he who is quick-tempered exalts folly.” God wants to shift us to use his wisdom more in situations and learn how to live in a climate of peace and wisdom.
You have to learn how to resolve anger before it gets out of hand. Ephesians 4:26 says that, “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger”. Have you ever gotten so angry that you stopped talking to God? Anger causes you to be estranged from God or causes you to be a stranger to God. See how the word “anger” in is the word “stranger”? It pushes you away from God because you are so caught up in your emotions to a point where you will not allow yourself to hear from Him. Anger distorts your view and judgement of everything.
So the next time you get angry, slow yourself and shift to the wisdom of God. Do not run from God but run to God.
by mondayslife | Mar 6, 2017 | Blame, Church, Mondays Life, Obedience, Religion, Resolutions, Wait on God
(This week I am stepping away from Praying and Fasting and talk about an experience I had recently)
Have you ever sat in church and ask yourself, what I am doing? I had that moment months back. I began to analyze what we were doing as church. Are we being effective in the world? Are we living up to what God wants for the church to be? Looking at the state of the church as whole, I outright said I hated the Church! I got so frustrated with the Church that I was ready to leave. But how could I hate the church and love God at the same time?
Last week I have been under tremendous warfare. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. I was so frustrated the whole entire week. I take online bible classes and my faith and beliefs has been challenged lately. I could not understand how we as church got so far away of where we originally supposed to be. The Lord led me to the book of Acts and I began to read it from the beginning. To see the journey of the apostles and the persecution that they had to endure is not comparable to what we are going through as a church. Are we really stepping out and putting our lives on the line for the name of the Lord? Or are we hiding behind the beautiful edifices that we have created?
The Lord began to show me the original plan of the church. As I began to pray, God began to tell me that our territory will be enlarged through our outreach. It is past time to go outside of the four walls and reach one another. But before we can do outreach, we must do in-reach. We must make sure that we are exercising what we are teaching. And that is the problem. There is not enough sound teaching going on in the church. There is a whole lot of preaching, which preaching is suppose to be for the unsaved, but not enough teaching. So we as believers are receiving salvation messages over and over again and never moving from the place of receiving God to discipleship. In result, we do not know how to conduct ourselves as a representative of Christ. We never move forward to being what God is calling the church to be.
So what is the charge I am faced with? How can we move from the outside to the streets? What is it that we have to do as church to fix what is in the house before we invite people to house? What good would it make If I left the church? If God has shined His light on His word for me to make a change, how many more has He revealed this to and are afraid to step forward. We are stuck going around in circles and are afraid to progress. We may not be able to reach all the churches and show how things are suppose to be but we can start right where we are. I will start where I am and love the church again.
