Pass The Test

Some of you who are reading this are probably going through a struggle right now. It could be with your physical health, finances, place of employment, career choices. It could also be family related, people wanting you to fail to boost their ego, the will to live, and the list goes on. God is not allowing you to be in that place just to leave you there permanently. He wants you to pass the test so you can either help somebody else get through, to bless someone else and you as well; most importantly, for Him to get the glory. Your test/struggle is not in vain. Like I’ve done with some of previous posts, I need to use some examples:

1. Abraham was tested to see if he was faithful to God by sacrificing Isaac. We never find Abraham questioning God, “why do you want me to sacrifice my son”; instead, we find him saying to the young men traveling with him, “stay here while Isaac and I worship the Lord.” Did Abraham pass? Yes!
2. Job was tested to see if he would remain truthful to God while the devil wreaks havoc in his life. Job makes faith statements such as “though He slay me, yet I will trust Him” and “I know that my Redeemer lives and He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.

I could give more examples, but I believe you get the point. I do need to say this; people will say that your challenges will be no more. For the record, as long as you’re living on this earth, you will always have tests, challenges or struggles to go through (some will be easy and some will be difficult). Either way, our faith in God needs to be strong or a relationship must be there so you can come out unscathed. Like I said in my post from last week (The Faithfulness of God), I believe that we as a nation are being tested from God to see if we’re going to look to ourselves, our respective president, or anybody but God. He wants us to try Him so He can show us His faithfulness. He’s done it with many people in the Bible and He will do it for us, if we solely take Him at His Word. With that, we can pass any test. Now, don’t think that our tests will be passed overnight. For some of us, it may take days, months, and years to come out of one test (depending on the assignment God has you on). Stay true to Him, He is with us. God will teach us many things in our tests, and like the Hebrew boys in Daniel 3, we can come out of the fire unharmed. Gold without fire can’t be pure gold, so take comfort when we’re in the furnace of God, He’s trying to refine us make us shine brighter than before.

While you’re in this test, swallow your pride thinking that you have to put up a front for people. God may have to bring you down to raise you up. That’s what He did with His Son, He had to die in order to be raised up. Don't be afraid to ask for prayer. We all need help in our tests (and God put us together to pass our respective tests). There will be those who will cheat, and try to get you to fail. So find someone who wants you to pass - not those trifling cheaters who not only want you to fail, but are failing themselves (and are probably so blind to the fact they're failing, they don't even realize it).

I close with this thought: most TESTimonies come after a TEST! Now that should give you something to TESTify!

You Can't Quit Now

We all have a gift bestowed unto us by our Heavenly Father. A small disclaimer: when I say gift, it can be translated as talent, purpose, or calling. God has given it to us, and our responsibility is to use it for His glory to bless other people. Now as we go forth and pursue it, there will come a time where you will either be sidetracked or just feel like giving up (and there are countless reasons). Let’s detour for a second and talk from the Bible to show where people who didn’t quit though they had justifiable excuses to do so if they did.

1. Joseph was given a dream that would rescue his family from famine. After revealing his dream to his brothers, Joseph was sold as a slave and eventually faced hardships after being lied on by Potiphar’s wife. Joseph had an excuse to quit, but he didn’t and as a result, the Lord was with him.
2. Job was under satanic attack and lost a lot in his life. His wife wanted him to curse God and die. Job could’ve quit serving God, but he didn’t and as a result, the Lord double-blessed him.
3. The apostles were beaten for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. They could’ve quit doing that to preserve their lives, but they didn’t and as a result, their ministry made an impact on the world (reference Acts 5:40-42).
4. Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den for praying to God. He could’ve quit for fear of his life, but he didn’t. As a result, Daniel made it known that God is a protector to those who love Him.
5. The three Hebrew boys were thrown into the fire that was 7x hotter than normal for refusing to bow their knee to the king. They could’ve quit serving God, but they didn’t. As a result, God walked through the fire with them.

What do we see here? If we’re serving God and bringing true glory to Him, He will always be with us. God is not blind to what trials we face.

Many of you have gifts that only you can do (and it has be expressed through the creative arts, through service, or through other means) that will bring glory to God and bless others tremendously. You must be determined and disciplined to fulfill your gift. If you don’t, you’re robbing yourself, God and others. You can’t quit now. The devil will throw many things at you to get you off course to make you quit. Keep your hands to the plow. We all need your gift just you all need my gift. Think back to when you wanted to quit something, but God gave you the strength to keep going – and it thrust you into your prophetic destiny. And I also want you to think back to when you started something and how you felt when you gave up. I would venture to say that when you kept going, you felt great and God extended your outreach. Trust me when I say that I know everything has a season; the objective is to stay obedient to Him at all times, so you don’t miss out when it’s your season. Even if you do, it will come back around again (provided you don’t remain disobedient).

I’ll even put this out there, there was a time in 2007 where I almost gave up on writing after an editor rejected my first book (Take It from Me). If some people didn’t encourage me to write, I would’ve been writing and making an impact on a few people. God allowed me to cross paths with a few people in 2009 and my first book was released and now it’s 2012, and I’ve written my first novel. I almost gave up writing the novel as well due to some personal issues going on in my life. Many of you didn’t know this, but if you were to read the acknowledgements in my novel, I mentioned when thanking the Lord that there was a point where I not only wanted to give up writing the novel, but living as a whole due to those personal issues. A dark cloud was over me during that time and I am so grateful that God sustained me through it all. If I had ended my life without finishing my novel, how would people’s lives be affected? Sure, God can use others to do something you should be doing, but the beauty of God is that He called us individually for a specific task. I said all of that to say this, if God has ordained you (which He has), He will sustain you through it all. Never let go of Him because He will always have His hand on you. And now that my novel is released, I’m so grateful to see lives rescued from the spirit of suicide.

In short, though I could type a lot more, just know that you can’t quit now because God will never quit on you! I better not forget this, you will face opposition like Joseph, Job, the apostles and many others recorded in Scripture, but you still can’t afford to quit now. Remember, quitters never win!

Serving Others

Matthew 20:28 says the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. Another translation would be: the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.

As we look at this verse along with verses 26-27, you find that the focus is not about reaching the top and exert your power and/or authority, but instead to give your life in the service of others, especially for the spiritual good of all people. As you can see, Jesus is advocating the phrase, “it’s not about us!” It’s about others.

Now, let’s look at serving others. Sometimes we want to serve others expecting something in return, or compensation, or to be looked upon as “all that”). That should not be part of our repertoire. The question might be asked, “How do we serve others if Jesus is advocating this?” That’s a legitimate question. And this is what we’re going to talk about for the remainder of this post.

If we’re in Christ and all about doing His will, then His Spirit should be manifested in us. 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 talks about gifts that are a manifestation of the Holy Spirit through individual believers: Word of Wisdom (an utterance from the Holy Spirit applying God’s Word or wisdom to a specific situation), Word of Knowledge (an utterance from the Holy Spirit revealing knowledge about people, circumstances, or Biblical truth), Faith (supernatural faith imparted by the Holy Spirit, enabling a Christian to believe God for the miraculous), Healing (restoring someone to physical health by divinely supernatural means), Miracles (divine supernatural power to alter the course of nature, including casting out demons), Prophecy (a special temporary ability to bring a word, warning, exhortation, or revelation from God under the impulse of the Holy Spirit), Discerning of Spirits (special ability to judge whether prophecies and utterances are from the Holy Spirit), Speaking in Tongues (expressing oneself at the level of one’s spirit under the direct influence of the Holy Spirit in a language he or she has not learned and does not know) and Interpretation of Tongues (special ability to interpret what is spoken in tongues – personally: I haven’t met too many people with this gift and sure would love to, because I believe this is needed in the body of Christ). Now, some will have more than one and some will only have one. There’s nothing wrong with that; just don’t sit on that gift. We can express the gifts given to us in multiple ways in the service of others, some can express it behind a pulpit, through the creative arts, and the list can go on. I have concerns when it comes to gifts: 1-when we belittle others when they don’t have the gift that we have, 2-copying what another person does because of the gift that’s in them (not really using your gift) and 3-using a true gift with the wrong motive (not serving others, but to itch ears for the sake of $).

Serving others is for the glory of God, not for our sole benefit. Yes, we will benefit whether on earth or in life eternal, but it’s all about Him and His glory!

Additional scriptures to view if you want to: John 13:34; 1 Corinthians 13; Colossians 3:14; 1 John 3:14 and 4:8.

The Spirit of Indecision

Indecision - the feeling that you are unable to make a decision. As I look at the definition, indecision can be a good thing or a bad thing. It can be a good thing especially if we're yielding to the will of God. It can be a bad thing if we're indecisive and decide to take matters into our hands.

The focus of this blog is about the spirit of indecision and we taking matters into our own hands. Using the economy as a perfect example, many people are being attacked in so many ways, that indecision smacks them right in the face. Normally you hear, job cuts, pay cuts, healthcare costs rising, entitlements are being taken, no pay raises. That causes immediate indecision for some people.  

Being in the workforce, I find the typical traits. People come and go at a job in a quest for promotions and/or more income, but not really growing - just coasting where they are (hoping to reach retirement without a break in my service to my company). Now, I'm not saying that's a bad thing. It wouldn't come as a surprise that on some level, there's a bit of unhappiness because there's you don't feel fulfilled in life. What eventually happens is having more money becomes a curse because there's no peace and increased stress (especially when you add the pressures of layoffs, and entitlement plans getting cut).  I know for me, having more money does me no good if I don't have my any peace in my body and spirit. I will even add that it doesn't do me any good if my health is deteriorating. It makes no sense to acquire additional money and it compromises everything you believe just so you can temporarily get ahead financially.

This is an excerpt from a blogpost I did April 25, 2011 entitled Complacency & Hebrew Slaves (you can find the entire article in the 2011 archive under the week of 4/25/11: has complacency gotten you to the point where you have amnesia? If so, what do you intend to do about it? Also, why is it that people who are truly complacent remember the insignificant things but ignore the hardships endured to acquire the insignificant things? Think about it, the children of Israel had their backbones beaten just for food. What they should have been thinking about was stepping out on faith to have freedom as well as freedom from the horrible treatment endured by the Egyptians. Now, let's bring it to us: are we being told to love your job and being fed from our employer that we should be thankful that we are working for them? Are you afraid to take a leap of faith and pursue the freedom and talent that God is calling you to because your employer is telling you that nobody is going to take care of you like we do? Remember, misery loves company. Now, those things (benefits and paychecks) are really insignificant; however, we ignore having our jobs threatened, having no raise and/or bonus, having our salaries reduced, and having our retirement funding be reduced in order to have the insignificant things. If we're smart enough, we should remember the horrible treatment more than the insignificant things given to us (which aren't even guarantees). That should in itself cause you to want to break free from complacency.

So, in closing: After you tire yourself from thinking money will make you happy, moving from job to job, seeking contentment in your job (or in your life for that matter), trying to make your OWN plans or solve your OWN problems; rest in the arms of the Father, who loves you, who wants to communicate with you every moment of your life and will cure you from the spirit of indecision by giving you His action plan for your life, and yes, even in these hard economic times. Don't worry if you don't have all of His action plan at this moment, just know that as long as you're in Him, your steps are ordered by Him.

The Faithfulness of God

Philippians 1:6 says this: Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

This is a promise that we can take to the bank. It also shows God’s faithfulness to us. Now let’s talk for a moment.

Here it is, 2012 and we could say that we’re in a recession if not depression. I believe this is a test from God to see if we’re going to look to ourselves, our respective president, or to see if God will get us out of the situation we’re in (whether it be for a legitimate reason or not). One thing needs to ring out loud & clear: He wants us to try Him so He can show us His faithfulness. He’s done it with many people in the Bible and I’ll give you a few examples to get you going:

1. God showed Daniel His faithfulness by shutting the mouths of the lions.
2. God showed the three Hebrew boys His faithfulness by walking in the fire with them.
3. God showed the children of Israel His faithfulness when they crossed over the Red Sea.

OK, I think you get it. He will prove His faithfulness to us if we’re in Him and we allow Him to do His work in us. Now many of us are hurt in all areas of life due to the economy, or going through some setbacks, some trials/adversities (financial hardships, physical issues, etc.) and the list goes on. Regardless of how we got in our respective predicament, God wants to demonstrate His faithfulness to us and He wants us to prove our faithfulness to Him in these hard places (not just to get you out and you continue to live like YOU want to). Faithfulness to God always brings promotion (now that could be while we’re still alive or in life eternal).

There may be a few who might question God as to why it’s taking so long to be at the place where WE think we ought to be. Well, think about this: Paul was a tent-maker (that was his profession and where he received his income), but he also held down a ministry. God still provided for Paul and demonstrated His faithfulness to him during his life. I said that to say that for some of you, this might be the path God is taking you on.

Now for some of us, we may be on a course in life, and God may have to divert your plan in life for His plan and purpose for your life. Be faithful to His plan, because there’s a blessing waiting ahead for you because He is faithful.

For some, we may have done foolish things to cause us to be in a pit, drowning in our own sin (self-induced, you might say). If you come to yourself, and return to His love, a blessing is waiting for you because He is faithful.

And for some, we may have to go through a nightmare (financially, loss of a loved one, the devil terrorizing your life, and the list goes on), continue to bless the name of the Lord, because there’s a double blessing waiting for you, knowing in your heart and soul that your Redeemer lives and He is faithful.

Don’t fret, rejoice and continue to demonstrate your faithfulness to Him because He IS good and He is faithful to every promise He made. I can tell you straight up, that my, my, my God is faithful.

In closing: remember that He who started the work in you will be faithful to complete it in you.

Complacency & Talents (Round 2)

In fairness to those who didn’t read my blog post Complacency & Talents last year, here’s an excerpt of what I wrote. You can read the entire post filed under the 2011 archives (week of April 18, 2011)

(From April 18, 2011): What talent have you buried? I know a lot of people and many of you have made your talents known to me. And I must ask, what are you doing with them? I beg you not to let them go to waste, because your talent is NOT just for you. Only you can do what you do with the talents that have been bestowed upon you. Now you might think your talent is small, but in God's eyes, it's important! No matter how big or small your talent is it's the ticket to put you where you need to be in your life.

(July 2012)

Matthew 25:14-30 was the focus for that post and it will be the focus for this post. It’s been said that you can learn from people who succeed and from people who fail. Successful people can teach us things; and people who fail can teach us what not to do. I’m going to focus on people who fail for this post. You probably know people who have gone through life “I woulda, shoulda, coulda done this.” They stop there because they don’t want to add this after the phrase, “because I was complacent or I was told to consecrate myself, time and talents and everything which the Lord has blessed me with or which He may bless me to my local church, denomination, or religion.” No legacy is left, no lives were impacted, and the closing chapter of some people’s lives become full of resentment, disappointment, and their attitudes become bitter and mean.

If we are wise, we should learn from them. We know many people around us who have talents or are gifted in a specific area, but they don’t do anything due to fear, negative friends and family, or just downright complacency. I said I was going to reference the scripture in Matthew, let’s go there. A master had servants and gave one servant 5 talents, another 2 and another 1. The first two doubled their talents, and the last one sat on it. Many people stop after verse 26 where the master called the servant who sat on his talent a “wicked and slothful servant!” Verses 28 through 30 are crucial points that we can learn from. The master went on to say this to the slothful servant, take his talent and give it to him who has 10 talents. To everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness.

We all have been blessed with a specific talent (some may have more) or a specific ministry that is uniquely different (some of us need to stop trying to be carbon copies of others – that could be a lesson all by itself). Sometimes God will call you to a ministry or to use your talent that may not be lucrative in the natural or appear to minister to people while you're alive; however, that ministry or you using your talent to the fullest while you were alive will leave a legacy after you pass onto life eternal. I beg you my brothers and my sisters to be free from the spirit of complacency.

Spiritually Drained

As I look at my life and the lives of some of my brothers & sisters in the body of Christ, I can imagine there are times when we’re spiritually drained. Yes, we have Jesus in our hearts and lives, but what I’m referring to is more along the lines of when you’re encouraging someone in the faith (whether it be to go on with a dream, a career, and even their lives – such as divorce, thoughts of suicide, turning back to the world, etc.) or having to be strong for someone which typically includes you having to pray/intercede or fast for others (especially if they’re contemplating/attempting suicide or wanting to be sucked into the trap of the devil), that you can be drained spiritually and need to be fed and prayed for from somebody. Also, when you’re drained spiritually, the devil will typically come in an wreak havoc in an area of you life that’s either your weak point or an area that you neglected in your life. I’m sure some people have this kind of ministry; but one of two things can prevent us from being spiritually drained:

1. Swallow your pride – this typically occurs when you have this image that I’m to be a support and no one is to see my true feelings or the need that I’m drained. So we put on a false face to show that you’re not broken inside and need help. I try to encourage people to be real with me. The last thing I want to do is see someone so strong on the outside, where you’re really dying inside.
2. Believers putting down their selfishness – this occurs when people who are spiritually drained needing a brother/sister to pray and they turn you away because you’re too negative or their own pride.

In summary: A reason why we may not come alongside those who are trying save a life (whether physically, mentally or spiritually) is because of selfishness, or jealousy. Understand that most people who have ministries like this have gone through hell in their past or even their current. This is why they need to be covered in prayer. It’s one thing to be sensitive to the needs of others and trying to keep them encouraged, and at the same time you’re also being attacked in multiple ways (especially when you’re doing a work for the Kingdom of God – as you’re a co-laborer with Him). We should be able to come alongside anyone that have ministries that powerful and keep them encouraged with the Word of God. No one man is an island or has all the answers. Drop your pride and be prayed for, or don’t be neglecting your brothers or sisters because you’re so focused on your blessing.