by mondayslife | Aug 13, 2018 | Church, Decisions, Fasting, Laying of hands, mandate, Mondays Life, Praying, Religion, Spiritual Gifts, Wait on God, wisdom
So last week i talked about the 30 day fast The Lord led me on in the month of July. It was probably one of the hardest fast I have been on because of the tough lesson I had to learn.
I often get asked what kind of fast do I partake in? Do I do the Daniel’s Fast? No food at all? Well, it really depends on what The Lord leads me to do. I’ve done many types of fast, but this time I did what I called a 19:5 fast. I fasted for 19 hours of just water and then had a five hour window to eat. Where did it come from? The Lord! I am still a vegetarian and I recently limited my dairy intake from little to none. It was very tough in the beginning because when the five hour window opened up, I was eating whatever I could find. I began to realize that what I was eating was not good for the body and needed to make wiser decisions since it was the only meal I was able to eat. I started eating a little bit more cleaner and when I had very long days I tried waiting until I got home which made it tougher. But when I began to think that what I am doing is for The Lord, I was able to make it through those long days.
I went through an emotional roller coaster in which I could not really tell anyone about. I was a mess. There were some days The Lord called me to the floor of my prayer room and there were days where i just laid in the bed meditating. During that time, The Lord was teaching me about the doctrine of laying hands and walking in power and authority. I heard so many confirmations from others I encountered throughout the fast and when the power of laying hands broke out in the church, The Lord said, “This is part of the reason I placed you on the fast”. To see the power of God move throughout the house in everyone and not just one moment but a week by week encounter is a sight to see. The fast was not just for me but to pray and help push people into their next phase in their spiritual walk.
In my book, Praying and Fasting: Still an Effective Kingdom Principle, I talk about the power of praying and fasting for others. I still get joy out of fasting and praying. Right when I ended my fast, it seems like the enemy was waiting right there waiting for me. But I was not afraid because I heard the Holy Spirit in the midst of it encouraging and comforting me through it all. As I type, I am in peace. Even when the seas of life are raging around me, I meditate on Psalms 27: 13-14 that says, “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
What was my take-away from the fast?
As I mentioned last week, The Lord has been working on my heart. The kingdom is about building a community and loving one another. The Disciples spent just about every waking moment together and we as disciples should do the same. Pray for one another. Talk, teach, and to learn from each other. It is definitely a new place for me but I am coming around.
I am definitely in a season of praying and fasting. It has been very interesting to partake in. Nevertheless, i am grateful The Lord finds me faithful do go through. That encourages me even more to keep pressing and praying. I could not tell you why this mandate is on my life, but I will stay the course. It is not pretty and fun but at the end it is rewarding.
by mondayslife | Jan 8, 2018 | Bible, Goals, God Great, Mondays Life, New Me, New Year, Religion, Resolutions, Wait on God, wisdom
New Year, Who Dis?
How is your first week coming along?
As we go into the new year, it is always great to see New Year Resolutions, new businesses, habits, and promises working to come to pass. I often wonder what brings people to a place at the end of December to reflect their year and call it a lost? I see this often on Facebook and I wonder was it really bad as we say it was? We may had bad moments but it should not cause us to throw the whole year away.
So we decide to start afresh with a positive mindset and drive. But by February or March, we get discourage and lose the momentum to keep going forward. Could it be that we never included God in our resolution in the first place?
I usually do not make resolutions but I do make business plans and steps to take every year. I pray over them and modify when the Lord says so. I recently introduced a new component in my business last October that I never had in my original plan. I knew the Lord was moving in this direction. But if I was so headstrong in keeping in the plan I had in the beginning of the year, I would have missed the shift and blessing. What I’m trying to say is remember to leave room for God to shift, add, or change your resolution. If something that you had written down is not working, do not give up. Just stop, pray, listen, tweak, and go. You have to remember that it is ok if that happens.
The Bible says in Proverbs 19:21 says that “Many plans are in a man’s heart, But the counsel of the LORD will stand.” Man will plan so much and have desires in their hearts to do so much, but the direction, purpose, and will of God will always trump and remain primary. It is better to go to God first and to hear His plan and strategy than to exert so much time and energy in something that God does not have a desire to come to pass.
So as you start your new year, remember to put God first. 2017 mistakes has passed away and the 2018 will bring in the new.
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.
by mondayslife | Dec 26, 2016 | Deliverance, God Great, Mondays Life, New Me, New Year, Praying, Religion
How many of us used to say this every time at the end of the year making our New Year’s resolution? We make out these long list of stuff we want to do and make “vision” boards that do not even line up with the will of God? We often use the scripture of Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.” We interpret this scripture meaning that God will give us what WE want. That is not the case. In this scripture it is saying that God will give you THE DESIRES. God will give you the desires He wants you to desire so when you desire something, it is of God and not of you. It is not of self or flesh, but by the spirit. Delight means to make oneself pliable and flexible. So you are making yourself flexible and pliable for the Lord to change your heart’s desires to His. In order for this to happen, our heart must change. That is way God requires us to have a new heart. In Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it? In Ezekiel 36:26 says, “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. There is no way that God can give us the desires of our old wicked heart. Our heart is deceitful and manipulative. Jeremiah 24:7, ‘I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the LORD; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.
In this season, you got to catch what God wants for you and not what you want for yourself. How do we know if what we are desiring are from God? There are three points you want to follow to know if you are walking in the desire of God for your life
In Isaiah 30:21 says that, ‘Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, This is the way; walk in it. You have to be able to decipher between your voice, God’s voice and the enemy voice. Many believers wrestle with this and often times find themselves in various situations. Romans 8:14 says that “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”. How can you be led? By learning the voice of God. My sheep knows my voice and I know them and they follow me. If you are a son of God, the ability to know His voice is inside of you. Once you allow the spirit to have control over your life, He will lead you in the right direction. Hearing from God takes discipline and you have to commune with God, read your Bible in order to know the voice of God. You have to meditate on His word over and over and you will begin to become familiar with His voice.
- We do not have to force the doors open
Everything flows in His perfect timing. Habakkuk 2:2 “Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, That the one who reads it may run. “For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay. 3:11 He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end. God knows how much we can handle in THIS time. If God showed us everything for our lives, we would not be able to handle it. We would jump right to the end and not appreciate the process in between to get to that point. The process in between is what makes us who we are. That is why God only gives us glimpses of our future because He knows that we cannot handle it. God knows not to give us everything at once because we are not mature enough to handle it. In James 4:3 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. God’s will would not be on your mind, you would be focused on your own will and desires. God will never give you millions until He knows for a fact that you will do what He wants for you to do. If God told us to give a million away, are we able to? We got to walk in maturity. If not, you will end up like to prodigal son. The prodigal son was guaranteed in due time to receive his inheritance, but he wanted all that was promised to him now. So the father did and the son used up all that was promised to him. Why? Because his motives were not pure. His problem was immaturity and ignorance. He did not know who he was and where He was headed. We cry and cry to God for things to happen in our lives, but we are not able to handle the responsibility of receiving the blessing. We want marriage- but not mature enough to handle the responsibilities yet alone take care of ourselves. We want a house- but do not have financial discipline. We want a business- but cannot remain faithful to work for someone else
Phil 4:6-7
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
- Don’t be anxious for anything! Do not be so quick to have things in your life. God wants for us to pray to Him to make sure that it is in His will. The problem is that we do not stay long enough in his presence to hear the full answer and instructions.
- The desire will not be exalted higher than God
In Ezekiel 14 talks about how people allow their desires to become idols in their hearts. They have set up their idols in their heart; they not only have idols, but they are in love with them, are wedded to them, and have laid them so near their hearts, and have given them so great a room in their affections, that there is no parting with them. God will allow desires in your heart to come to pass to show you that you do not need them in the first place. Our desires can be so strong to a point where we exalt them before God and not even know it. In everything we do, we have to make sure that God is leading us rather than us trying to lead God. God has given us the ability and He can take it away too. Desires are created, motivated, and moved by a will. Do not allow others to place their will on your life. Do not allow your own will to create desires in your heart. Once you give God an authentic “Yes”, then His Will will be downloaded in our spirits to create the desires for our heart.
So as you go into the 2017 year, check your heart and make sure you are desiring the desires that God wants for you to desire. If you are going to make a list, pray over it and make sure this is the direction that God wants for you to travel. Do not be like the man who decides to go on a trip but do not have the right directions or GPS to get there. If you continue to lean and depend on God, He will lead you in prosperity and wealth.
by mondayslife | Dec 19, 2016 | Deliverance, Mondays Life, Obedience, Praying, Religion, Wait on God
de·liv·er·ance
dəˈliv(ə)rəns/
noun
1. the action of being rescued or set free.
I want to continue on deliverance and dig deeper on the four point I gave last week. The day after deliverance, you want to immediately follow these three points:
- Talk to the Lord
- Read Your Bible
- Create your sphere of influence
It is all about developing discipline. You got to live a discipline life. So I am going to touch on the first point of talking to the Lord. It is important to develop a prayer life with the Lord. Here you will gain guidance, encouragement, love, and instruction. This is your personal time with the father. Psalm 32:8 says, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.”
It is so important to hear the voice of God for your life. It is good to seek counsel on certain situations, but we must not always take what people are saying for gold. God will place people in your lives known as spiritual mentors or spiritual fathers and mothers. I want to touch on is hearing and trusting the voice of God for yourself. I believe that many of us trust the voice of man over the voice of God. Usually when the Lord is speaking concerning a situation, sometimes we do not want to hear it because it goes against our own will. We have a habit of confirming the voice of God with man rather than confirming what man say with God’s Word.
I had a friend who was so sure that she was supposed to move out town because her spiritual mentor told her that she needs to move out of town. I posed a question to her saying, “What did God say about the situation?” She looked at me and said well I trust my spiritual mentor. My next question was, “Do you trust God?” Sometimes people can say things to tickle our fancy rather than speaking about what God wants for us. We are still stuck in the Old Testament tradition of going to the priest to speak to the Father on our behalf. We have to remember that those days are over. The veil has been torn down and we do not have to go through man to talk to God.
So the question I pose to you is that have you placed yourself in the position to hear from God? The Lord is waiting for us to speak to Him and He is waiting to speak to us. But do we harken to the voice of God? God is waiting for us to say, “Speak, for thy servant is listening.”
In the book of Proverbs, it says, “My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God”.
Listening is an art. It takes time to realize when God is speaking, when it is yourself, and when the enemy is trying to speak. We will make mistakes and miss when God is speaking. But if you confess and realize when God is not speaking, it will help you to develop your inner ear even more.
Point number 2 is reading the word of God.
Point number 1 works hand in hand with point 2. You are able to hear God through His word. Here are some scriptures that talks about how God wants you to hear from Him:
Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. Jeremiah 33:3
And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. Isaiah 30:21
Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” Luke 11:28
Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” John 8:47
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Romans 8:14
And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Phil 4:7
There are topical Bibles available concerning various topics that can help when you are feeling a certain way. When you read the word, it awakens and stirs up your spirit, it gives you hope and sustains your life. When you stay in the word of God, it will lead you to live a life of freedom. The bible says that, man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds out the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). Proceeding is a continual motion, it should never stop because God always has something to say to you. Psalm 111 says that, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Once you have the word of God in your heart on repeat, the desire to sin against God decreases.
Point 3- Create your sphere of influence
It is all about the company you keep.
1 Corinthians 15:33 says “Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”” Proverbs 13:20 says that, Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. If you do not know who is around you is best the influence for your life, pray and God will show you their heart. If this person, is not helping you to become better, then they may not be for you. If you people around you are condoning your bad behaviors and not call you out, then they may not be the great company for you.
Some of us created bad soul ties with people that should not have. If you are serious about breaking, the spirit of the Lord can break every tie, bondage, and chain. Learn how to create Godly soul ties such as with Jonathan and David. Jonathan saw the destiny of David and did all he could to help David get to the point where he needed to be. David was destined to be King, but Jonathan knew the way. Even though Jonathan was next in line, Jonathan knew the anointing was on David to be King. Now that is covenant.
God wants you to present yourself to Him and He’ll do the cleaning. We cannot make ourselves Holy. God does the sanctifying and purifying. Only God can blot of out our transgressions. He wants those things that we are holding on to. If it was our choice, we would want to hold on to those things. God said give it to me. God said I want you to lay aside every weight. God is with you through your deliverance process. He wants you set free. Deliverance is a day by day event and it takes effort from us to do so. One Sunday experience does not fix our problems, but it can help and push you to where you need to be. Nobody was born perfect, so let us respect and help those through their deliverance process. Let us not talk about and make fun of those who are trying. At least they are trying and not in denial.
We should be a community that would want to see everyone free and walking in their deliverance.
by mondayslife | Dec 12, 2016 | Deliverance, God Great, Mondays Life, Praying, Religion, Wait on God
If you have been following my weekly blog, I am on the topic of deliverance. Many of us attend churches where the Spirit of God moves in and there is a point during service where people can come down to the altar to confess their sins and profess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Many charismatic churches take their newly or well-attended members through a process called deliverance. During this time, the believer is confessing their sins and hang-ups in their lives and want to be free and changed from it. Those who do not possess Christ in their hearts would sometimes have demons manifest out of them just like in the Bible days which could cause gnashing, vomiting, and other types of manifestations. When all is said and done, they go back to their seats and we call what they have gone through is deliverance.
We have to remember in scripture Luke 11 says that, “When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.” So once the whole deliverance has taken place at the altar, there is a chance that the person will be attacked even harder than before. But do we teach or warn the people?
Many Christians face in their days of walking with the Lord coming to a point where they have to give of something that is preventing them from walking closer to God. Matter of fact all Christians. You cannot be saved and remain in the same lifestyle you lived before salvation. When you come into Christ, you are a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). All of us deal with things that trip us up but we are ashamed to show our shortfalls. Sometimes God will take it away or allow it to be our thorn in our flesh (2 Cor. 12:7). The true testing is the day after deliverance. You may question yourself and say “Am I really delivered? What am I supposed to do now?” The problem with the process of deliverance that the church culture has created is that we go through the motions of crying, throwing up, and being laid out on the ground, but there isn’t any follow up or further counseling. I have experience more of a taunting after the fact rather than encouragement and support. Many Christians have experienced the same thing.
I remember learning about the deliverance process and in that was walked through deliverance. Many think when we go through the steps of renouncing and repenting at the altar, that is all that need to take place. But as I grow in God, I am learning that deliverance is a daily process. Not just the one-time process we experience at the altar or in the prayer room. We must always remain in prayer and communion with God. When you spend so much time in God, the temptation to slip back lessens because of the Word and the vision of your future that is being poured inside of you. Inner healing begins to take place and your intimacy with the Lord becomes stronger.
So some may ask, I need practical steps! What can I do to maintain my deliverance? Deliverance requires purging of the soul. Let’s take for example your struggle is overeating. I believe these next few steps can be applied to any given situation. First after the church service:
Before you begin to get on the phone to talk to friends and family, talk to God. Talk out the situation and the process and I say not only do I believe I am delivered but I know that I am deliver. You have to keep speaking positivity over yourself saying that “I am delivered” You need to constantly speak well over yourself. 2 Corinthians 10:5- Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ
For many this may be difficult due to the fact that many do not read their bible so they do not know where to go in the scriptures. There are many bible aids out there that can help you find scriptures that addresses your problem. A few examples are
- John Eckhardt- Daily Declaration series
- Cindy Trimm- Spiritual declarations
- Google
There is no reason for us not to know what scriptures to stand on because there are many resources that can help us
- Create your sphere of influence
If you want to do better, it is all about the company you keep. Change the people around you. It is easier said than done but if you want to save your life, you got to do what you need to do. The Holy spirit will give you the words to say and the direction as needed. Pray to God to show you who you need to be connected to. There are those assigned to help you to get you to your next destiny
You got to keep the word hidden in your heart. This can only happen through repetition. You have to repeat something over 13 times in order for it to become your reality. Your deliverance is your reality. I want you to walk in it
As you start your Monday, be encourage. Read or listen to the word of God. Remember that you are delivered healed, and set free. God has great things in store for you. Jeremiah 29:11 says that, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”
Here is the FB live video:
The Day After Deliverance Pt. 2
