God Encounters

One of my favorite memories was when leading a youth worship team and we were having our new youth pastor speak that evening.. but God had other plans. During the worship, God started speaking to and thru me. It was an incredible message that had kids age 18 and under crying out to Jesus.. literally. Some of the oldest boys were curled up in the fetal position on the floor just crying. Anyone who tried to come to the stage or was on the stage couldn't stand up. The new youth pastor was walking towards the stage and fell to his knees crying. My whole worship team ended up face down on their knees crying out to God. I was having to hold myself up by leaning on a grand piano as God spoke thru me. The sound man tried to come to the stage, fell on his knees and cried. The sound man and new youth pastor ended up crawling to the steps to get a microphone and through sobbing tears tried to invite kids to come to the front for prayer.. but no one could speak except in broken up words and no one could stand. I had a great view from the stage as this light green hazy misty fog appeared, stretched out and just hovered above the kids in the sanctuary. The spirit of God was present and it was evident! It was truly amazing and I've longed for another encounter with the Lord like that ever since. It's made it very hard to attend dead churches because once you truly experience and have a God encounter, nothing else compares to it.

I think so many times churches get wrapped up in presenting by way of a time frame that we don't leave room for God to enter let alone for a God encounter. Sometimes we look at our watches and are already contemplating where we are going to lunch or who we want to invite to lunch after the service. But what about inviting Jesus into the service and truly having church? Church isn't just about fellowship with others.. it's about fellowship with Jesus! I wonder how many God encounters we would see in our churches today if we simply invited Jesus into His own service? I wonder how many lives would be changed just like mine was that day, if people were given the opportunity in church to have a God encounter?

Listen church.. if we truly want to see what Jesus can do in our lives and in the lives of others, we need to stop playing church and actually Be the church. We need to start praying during church services and inviting Jesus in through our worship. We need to stop being afraid of what we truly need and want, which is more of Jesus and less of ourselves, and we need to stop living for ourselves and start living a life that pleases our Savior.

To be Christian is to be Christ-like. We cannot be double minded and expect our lives to reflect the life of Jesus. We can't be selfish and make services all about an agenda and time frame so we don't offend others. We have to be Jesus minded and Jesus centered. Truly think about this a moment because Jesus pressed this message on my heart and while I know it's cliche'.. Ask yourselves, "WWJD?" (what would Jesus do?) if He came to Your service this Sunday? Would He overthrow the tables or would He invite the Holy Spirit in to just hover over His children? I think that depends on what we choose and on what we allow Jesus to do in His service and churches today. I personally choose to invite Him in for a God encounter!

Stressing takes away Gods glory

 I'm going to share what happened to me today because it's a good reminder for us all.

You see.. I was stressing over several things going on in my life right now and so I went to God and started praying again but this time I really broke down even more so than last night while praying about these things that I have wanted answers to for so long.

Well during my prayer, sometimes God speaks and sometimes I hear nothing. This time He chose to speak and well I basically got in trouble but I need you to know that it was out of Gods love for me that He corrected me. He corrects in a gentle and loving way.

He reminded me that stressing doesn't bring Him glory. That hit me hard! You see I spent a lot of time praying this week over how I only want to do and say things that bring my Lord glory and for Him to rid me of anything that I might be doing that takes away His glory. So yes, this hit me hard because my heart is only to serve to bring Him glory. So I was broken up pretty bad because I couldn't see until now that stressing actually takes away His glory and that's what I was doing by stressing.

God is good and loving and faithful to His word and when we ask what we don't understand, He will explain it to us.

He explained that it actually takes glory away from Him because at that moment, we are relying on our own strength and falling prey to our emotions rather than trusting in Him and His word of how He will take care of us.

He went further to remind me of how He clothes and feeds the birds. He named off the seasons and how each season requires different things needed to survive and how He provides each one of those needs for the birds as well as for His children in every season of our lives. I never really thought about how each season requires different things for birds to survive. I'm still not sure I understand all that is required but I got the jest of it. Then He told me how much more He loves His children and how He is always there, we need only call upon Him when we feel stressed and He will provide the peace we need to sustain us and move us through it. That's exactly what He did the moment I asked for Him to forgive me. I immediately felt His peace and then felt I needed to apologize for snapping at my mom simply because I was at my stress limit. I also apologized to my sister in case I added stress for her during any part of our conversation.

The Lord reminded me that I am His child and that I know His voice and to listen for that still small voice and it will always bring me peace. Then I heard Him say Be Still and Wait. My human side piped up and said but Lord I've been waiting for so long for answers.. His reply was this.. Wait..(pause) Lonnnger! (I actually laughed at this because I thought about what a sense of humor He has to draw it out like that) But God didn't leave me hanging there. He went on to say, I'm working, you just can't see it yet but I'm working on your behalf because I want the best for you. Be still my child, and wait.. Wait a little longer.

So for those that are in waiting like I am.. Just keep waiting longer for His timing so it will all work out for the best for you too. Pray and listen for His still small, calming voice that will bring you the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. Wait lonnnger if you have to so that you will have what God desires for you.

Knowing Your Own Heart

 From out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks..

In Luke 6:45, Jesus says that people can be judged by what they say and do because these things reveal what is really inside the person: “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” If you want to know what is on the inside of a person, you simply watch his actions; listen to what comes out of his mouth on a regular basis. This is not being judgmental; this is being realistic.

If a person is angry, rude, lewd, or immoral on a regular basis, you can be assured that this is what he is like “on the inside.” If a person is consistently kind, encouraging, and polite, then you can be sure that is what he is like “on the inside.” Of course, it is possible that someone might put up a façade to deceive others regarding his character, but eventually what is inside will come out. The mouth speaks out of the abundance—the overflow—of the heart.

The primary point of application in Jesus’ words seems to be this: when we see evil consistently coming out of a person in word and deed, we should not deceive ourselves by saying, “I think he really is a good person inside; he just has some bad habits” or “That’s just the way he talks, but he’s not really like that.” How many people fall in love and get married, thinking that the bad behavior they have observed is only an aberration? How many parents deceive themselves regarding the spiritual state of their children, thinking that they are true believers because of a childhood profession of faith, even though their lives demonstrate a heart of evil?

When Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks,” He meant that consistently sinful words and deeds are indicative of a sinful heart. Rather than always giving people “the benefit of the doubt,” we would do well to recognize the “fruit” we observe and respond accordingly. Being a “fruit inspector” does not mean we consider ourselves to be without sin; it does mean that we are realistic about whom to trust and whom we allow to exert influence over us and the people for whom we are responsible.

Stepping out of 2022 and into 2023

As I leave 2022 behind, God has reminded me of both the blessings and the trials I've gone through in 2022. We are all joyful over the blessings but often more times than not, we aren't joyful over the trials. Trials are hard but they do have significant meanings. They are meant to take us to the next level even if only to prove to ourselves that we are overcomers. Who or what we trust in during the trials tells who or what we place our hope, faith and trust in, if anything at all.

So as I reflect back on the many trials I've had to go through in 2022, I know that God was always with me through it all and the trials brought me closer to Him and to others when I allowed them to.. and when I tried to do it my way, those trials taught me great lessons that I will cherish for they took me to a new level. A level that had even greater challenges to overcome yet I also had new tools in which to use to overcome them all.

My faith has grown stronger in 2022. I've learned to speak up more in some areas of my life and and yet be quiet more in other areas. Yes, 2022 has taught me what I'm willing to put up with and what I'm not. It's taught me not to try things on my own and then seek God for help, but to seek God first and in doing so, I may just overcome that trial the first time.

Saying goodbye is an easy thing to do for the year 2022 because I've got my sights set on higher ground. Although the year 2023 will come with its own sets of challenges, I know that God has been preparing me for those challenges in the year 2022.

I also know that I'm not leaving God behind. He is with me always and so I'll step bravely into the year 2023 and face the trials with more hope, more faith and more belief in God and in myself.. and together we will meet each challenge with a new perspective.

I may not know what tomorrow holds, but I know my God holds my tomorrow in His hands. As I pray fervently on my knees, asking God to lead me into 2023, I'll be grateful for both the blessings and the trials, for He has always been and is always with me.

Fighting Battles Gods Way

I've been a fighter my entire life. It's what has kept my spirit from breaking. When things go wrong I fight hard to fix it. When people are trying to push me out of places God designed for me, I've fought hard to keep going, hang in there and stand my ground for what I know to be truth. While I've taken a stand against so many obstacles through fighting hard, the fight I'm talking about is not a physical fight.

When the holy spirit lives in you, you fight other spirits through the holy spirit. You can't fight a spiritual battle in a fleshly way. But you can fight what may look like a fleshly battle in a spiritual way because we do not wrestle against the flesh but against powers and pricipalities and we fight that battle through the act of prayer.

When we accept Jesus as Lord and allow Him dominion over every part of our lives, we give up the ways of the flesh. When things don't go the way we want them to, we aren't to take matters into our own hands, but instead we are to pray about the situation and let God lead us in what should be done, if anything.

Greater is He that is in us than a he that is in the world.

What this means is that God living in you is greater than anything you face in the world. Meaning that with God, we overcome all things.

Solving conflict  will be so much easier if we let God be in control. He's already got a good plan for our lives. It's up to us to seek after Him in order to find out just what that plan is for us.

Seeking God through prayer and the reading of His word creates relationship with Him. When in a relationship, we talk, we seek, we ask, we listen and we act. That's how we get to know God. We were created for a relationship with Him. We can't know who He is or what He's about unless we seek and listen. Once we learn what He desires for and from us, then we discipline ourselves to learning how to please our Lord and in pleasing Him, we will act and live out our lives according to His words in truth.

Will we fail at times? Absolutely. We are still flesh, we just no longer live in the flesh and not living in the flesh means that we live in the spirit. So when we fail, we go to our Father, our Lord, and we ask for His forgiveness and for Him to help us not repeat our same mistakes. And if we repeat them again, we repent and try even harder the next time. I've learned over the years that beating myself up over my mistakes sometimes causes me to push away rather than draw closer. God wants us to learn and change our behavior and attitudes but not to condemn ourselves in the process. No matter what we have done, He will never turn away nor forsake us, but sometimes we do just that to Him because of what we ourselves have done.

As a pastor, a friend and a child of God myself, I want you to know that God will never stop loving you. No matter what you've done, His arms are always welcoming you back. Sometimes we run, but God doesn't. Sometimes we fail, but God never fails. Sometimes we turn away thinking we are unworthy, but God says we are the sons and daughters of the Most High King. Sometimes we tell ourselves no one will love us if they truly know us, but God says I knew you before you were formed in your mother's womb and I love you unconditionally.

If you are running from God, He wants you to know that He is waiting for you to turn and run towards Him, not away from Him. He still desires a relationship with you and will receive you with open arms today.

Character Matters

Character That Holds Up Through The Storms of Life.

What Message Are You Sending?

God has a simple message that He sent us and one that He in turn expects us to send to others. LOVE!

When One Door Closes

Are you struggling? Have doors been closed in your life and you can't understand why things happen the way they do? Are you praying for something specific and not hearing an answer?

You're not alone..

Know Yourself

The person we spend the most time with is ourselves. This means that we tend to be pretty interested in ourselves. So let me ask you this: Do you really like yourself? Would you rather be somebody else? Are you realistic about your strengths and weaknesses?

Traveling Desert Lands

If you've ever traveled through the desert, you'll notice that it's mile after mile of dry and barren landscape.. Suddenly, there's a spot of green, some trees, bushes, and flowering plants. What does this mean?