faith

Infamous Zone

This post is partly a continuance of the last post, although, this is one of the biggest things I’ve learned this year. Life is about adaption and finding that place in life where you can reside peacefully with the least amount of awkwardness and or apprehension. However, as we become older, patterns, habits, and ways of thinking begin to set in and many times it will dictate what we will or will not [want to] do. You call that your comfort zone.

This zone can become very hazardous and detrimental to fulfilling your purpose. Now people have their various reasons for doing or choosing not to do certain things, some practical and others that are more in depth. Living a life of purpose, you have to be willing to shift and to get out of your comfort zone. As many people can attest as I’m sure you have heard, many times God leads us to those unfamiliar places and unknown territories that can be frightening to be quite honest. Even more, it’s not uncommon for Him to answer prayers in ways that we didn’t want or anticipate, but it’s by His sovereignty. When either of these things happen, some people respond and are willing to take the risk and jump off the cliff believing He will catch them or teach them to fly, and they have soared ever since. Still, others clam up and live in fear.

This fear is another trick of the enemy to hinder God doing amazing things in our lives. We all have our place of comfort, let’s be real, but God often does His best work when we are willing to step outside of the box, trusting Him all the way.

In the same breath, too many people put God in a box, which is the craziest thing anyone could ever do. God is so humungous that no box can fit His very essence, so why would we limit Him, and therefore limit ourselves? More than likely, the comfort zone is rather small, but the world is so big and God is even greater, and the more we step out, the more our eyes our opened and the more we get to experience, taste, touch, smell, and hear. You can’t live a purpose-filled life never leaving your comfort zone; I am a witness to that. So I encourage you not to just start doing weird stuff all willy nilly for no good reason, rather with prayer, wisdom, discernment, and good judgment of course, get out of your infamous comfort zone! – whether it be taking online classes, joining a ministry, having children or adopting, trying something new, following your dream, or confronting an issue that has plagued your life – The more you do, the greater your life will be. I promise. Your faith will grow and your relationship with God will go to higher heights. If God is leading you, don’t be afraid, for His grace will keep you. Take a risk, in Jesus’ name ;).

OH! And be careful not to tell God what you won’t do (normally things outside of your comfort zone). I did, matter a fact I had a list of things, He laughed at me, and now I’m doing or have done them with in the last year :).

 

Weapons with a Purpose: Fight

Two Edged Sword

So in working with the youth band, I ended up doing a series on the weapons we have to fight the enemy that are sure to work: his blood, your testimony, his word, and your praise. These four have the ability to do serious damage to the schemes of the enemy.

His Blood: Revelation 12:11 tells the story of the fall of Lucifer. He was kicked out of heaven, fell on Earth and has brought destruction ever since. However, in this verse we learn that we overcome him by the blood of the Lamb. First and foremost, we must realize the power of the blood. It saved us and now protects us from the enemy’s schemes. Because of the blood, we are no longer guilty in front of God. This passage calls Satan the accuser; he regularly goes to Heaven and questions the things we do, trying to convince God that we are not His. But then God looks at us, but the blood of our defender makes us not guilty; we are free from the bondage of sin. So live in victory, knowing that you may mess up, but we are God’s children forever and He will never leave us. Nothing can separate us from His love.

Your Testimony: Revelation also mentions another weapon that defeats the enemy – our testimony. I often come across people that are reluctant to share their testimony, because they are ashamed, or they feel that it is insignificant. However, I am here to tell you that sharing your testimony of how God has delivered you or sustained you or kept you is a mighty way of defeating the enemy. When you walk and talk, and embrace the power of God and what He has done in your life, you break the chains of Satan, not only you, but someone else can be encouraged just by hearing what God has done for you. Don’t be afraid of your testimony.

His Word: Ephesians 6:17 specifically calls His Word the sword in the armor of God. The greatest example of this, is Jesus himself. He conquered Satan when he was tempted in the wilderness (Luke 4). Each time Satan tried to make him fall, Jesus responded “it is written,” and eventually the Devil left. Satan is the father of lies so when he comes for us, even as an angel of light, when we know and understand the Word for ourselves, that is the fail proof way to make the Devil flee.

Your Praise: 2 Chronicles 20:12, 18-20 tells the story of King Jehosophat. The Israelites were facing and army they could not defeat, nor did they have a clue as to what to do. Thus Jehosophat went to God and simply worshipped God and commanded the people to do the same. During their worship, God himself fought for them and they were victorious against their enemies. The same goes for us. Many times there are obstacles and things in our lives that are too big for us to handle. But, the sure way to confuse the enemy is to go to God and worship Him in the midst. Joshua also did so in Jericho; they praised God and the walls came tumbling down. So the encouragement is to use a great weapon that is often times down played or overlooked: praise. Praise and worship is so critical, because it’s a defense mechanism, and it gives us the power to stop the giants and enemy in their tracks.

Know that greater is He who is in you than He that is in the world (1 John 4:4), and if you forget, you still have these four weapons to literally destroy your baddest enemy, Satan and his demons. Be encouraged and fight. Satan knows God has an amazing purpose for you and wants to hinder and destroy it every opportunity he gets. Fight. We have the victory.

Talk about Purpose x2

These are two incredible stories that so greatly illustrate the power of the blood of Jesus. Only he can turn your failures and mess into miracle for an even greater message. God has a purpose and their stories confirm the verse:

Romans 11:29 – For God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.

No matter what happens in your life, the bad, ugly, messed up and stupid, even if it was by your own merit, that doesn’t change God’s plan for you. He hasn’t and won’t change His mind about you.

http://www.twylah.com/BlogHer/tweets/281873963934687232

It’s Been a While

Oh my!!! It’s been so long since I’ve posted and I actually have things to finish writing. On top of that so much has been going on, so many emotions, many tears, many prayers, many smiles, good days, long days, productive days, and lazy days. I’ve been in the studio, broken a phone, lost a friend and realized how much of  a friend I had in someone else; I’ve encountered evil spirits when I was sent to pray them out of an apartment. I’ve been sick, hoarse, bitten, challenged, and put in the hot seat. I’ve learned that beating around the bush 9 times out of 10 helps no one, so in situations, I’m striving to be less passive. I’ve meet two celebrities, and learned how to do love knots, bantu knots, comb and finger coils, french braids, and 2-strand flat twist. I’ve been studying the book of Job in the Bible and it’s blown my mind and sometime soon I’ll share what I’ve learned. It’s just awesomeness. Likewise, I’m apart of the study of Jonah as created by an aspiration of mine, Priscilla Shirer, and yeah she’s awesome. “Navigating a Life Interrupted,” loving it.

Yet, for the sake of this post, I’ll talk about what I’ve learned just today. In the Priscilla Shirer study actually, in the book she questioned our place in life. This assumed that in some way or another coinciding with the “life interrupted,” we may not be in a place we thought we’d be in or what we may be doing may not be as grand as we imagined. Nonetheless it made me think of the verse Matthew 25:21:

His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

In my life now, as I’m sure many of us are we are quite where we wanted to be, or where we thought we’d be, not forgetting God totally debunked your original plan. Still, even if we yielded and are in God’s will, like me, have the urge to go out and do more and reach more. Yet, for some reason you are home; you aren’t going out to the masses; your territory grown maybe and inch; you may not be getting the calls that you thought you would by now. When this verse came to mind, I was immediately humbled. God has me where He has me for whatever purpose, and if one thing is for sure my patience and faith is being stretched. As I read in James 1:3-4, I’ll be in this spot until His work is completed in my patience and perseverance.

So, in enduring during this interesting time of my life, no matter how much I want to explore and leave and force my dreams to come true by midnight tonight, and meet so many new people, I have to be faithful to where God has placed me, at this very moment, using and developing the gifts and talents He gave me. He promised me that if I am, my oh my, He’ll entrust me with so much more. His work in my life in this stage isn’t complete but when it is…well you’ll just have to see ;)…Ironically though I am scared out my mind, but I know He is with me.

A Day Like Today

So to keep this short and from putting people on blast, today did not go my way. I was in a competition, and while singing the mic started to act funny then it just went smooth off. First fail of the day, then on top of that I was the last one to get there, but was somehow the first to perform. What in the world?! I was so not expecting that. Then there were the other acts which were cool, including my sister who did phenomenal. I knew one of us had it in the bag, until my fiasco lol. Anyhow, my sister won. I can’t lie and say I didn’t, but I really did want to win…real bad. But, I sucked it up. I had to she was my sister ☺. So after that we were waiting for her prize and all that jazz, and long story very short, she wasn’t able to receive it, due to a conflict of interest. I knew something was wrong, especially when she came back to me crying. Oh snap! It was about to be a wrap. But I held it together; I had to. There was really nothing that I could do. Still, for my sister to cry that protective mode kicked in quick and…yeah, and then my momma apologized because of how the whole thing went down. Man oh, man. Got my emotions all jacked up.

All that to say, this is the second time when I expected something to go one way, my way, and it didn’t, but I accepted the next best thing and that didn’t pan out either. Each time all I could say was, “God what in the world?! What is the purpose ’cause I ain’t gettin’ it?”

The first time this happened, it’s been about 2 years, and the Lord pretty much took away my dream. I had one plan, and it didn’t work out the way I had originally planned, so I settled with what I thought was the next best thing, but would ultimately get me where I wanted to go. Needless to say, once I figured out that plan was so null and void, I never felt so lost in my life. It was then I discovered and accepted God’s control over my life. It was hard because I had it all planned to a ‘t,’ and He stripped it away. So I was left with nothing. Or so I thought. Now what happened today wasn’t as dramatic emotionally and spiritually lol, but it just reminds me that God is God.

Back to my second story, it was when I just waited on God and did what I could do for Him in the mean time. He developed a new passion. This year is the year that what He has been doing in my life since I graduated in 2010 is coming to fruition. On a day like today, I was reminded that things will not always go my way, won’t always go smoothly, and won’t always make sense no matter what way you look at it. Still, God’s favor is real and He knows best. Many times we don’t see what He is up to behind the scenes, and so the only purpose we have sometimes is just to show up and do just what He had for you to do, and trust that God will bless our efforts. I know this because even though things didn’t go how I desired, I still made connections and even got a singing gig ☺.

So if you get nothing else from this post, I encourage you to seize every opportunity, even when it may not be all you hoped. There is always good, we just have to find it and keep it moving. Your purpose depends on it.