Come Out From Your Hiding Place

Alright guys!Theres an amazing word in this post tonight but before you read anymore I'd like you to just stop and say your own quick prayer to God asking for understanding and an open heart free of distractions.Lets pray also that he gives us strength to apply what he's given us in our daily lives...
    Alright we'll jump right in.Yesterday we visited Gratefulness and just how vital it can be in resisting temptation. I like to think of yesterdays message as a little on the "Defensive" side of things, today we're going to talk about the offensive...God has not only made us great defenders he's also made us great attackers...It's very important to know when to be on the defensive and when to be on the attack.I'm sure you understand I dont mean attack in a sense of physicality or violence in any way. However when we as christians proactively attack areas where the enemy is trying to keep our lights from shining mountains can be moved in our spiritual walks with christ. In about 30 seconds of scrolling someones twitter you can usually identify their weakness.Its usually what they talk about the most. In most cases those that have an abundance of certain things seldom annoy you with conversation about it.Lets take money for example...Those that truly have it dont feel the need to continually boast. Those that boast are merely attempting to cover what they feel is a flaw in their lives by standing in a hole in their lives screaming to the world "hey dont look over here there's no hole". If someone can figure this out in less than a minute of viewing your public post, how easy do you think it is for the devil who has access to your private thoughts...things you dont even share publicly..THATS why it is important actively attack things before they even enter our mind.Here are just a few ways we can do that

• IDENTIFY YOUR WEAKNESS (DEFINE YOURSELF)

                          I cant stress how vital it is for one to reflect and Identify their own weakness. When you allow people to define you, you allow them to control you.Take for example the serpent. The enemy used his one character trait of being crafty and defined him as being a deceiver. I understand past experiences create holes in your life..thats actually totally normal.Just dont allow someone or something else to stand in that hole for you..Its only temporary.However if you are 100% honest with yourself in identify your EVERY weakness and defining your OWN self..we serve a God who can PERMANENTLY protect us and fill those holes! Men, rather than Letting money or women DEFINE you be honest with yourself and with God. "God,Financially I'm not where i want to be but i trust you to get me there.God i dont have the woman i want but i know that if i follow your word and trust you you'll bring her to me." Women, instead of letting others opinions of you define you or seeking out whats good in another woman and attempting to duplicate that seek Gods plan for YOU individually and attempt to line up with his will.When we identify our own selves and we know God is already working on our weaknesses there is nothing that the devil can walk in and "hip us to".

• STRIVE TO LIVE A LIFE THAT PLEASES GOD

               I learned something not to long ago that actually help me efficiently fight off the enemies attacks."If you cant do it in front of your grandmother dont do it." Its kinda funny but its extremely true. Its a small statement that simply reminds us of the respect and gratefulness we have for our grandmothers.Its not easy to do anything in front of them because they are PHYSICALLY there with us. We must be reminded that in that same way God is with us. Also when we strive to live a life that pleases God the Voice of the Holy Spirit is much louder. It can be explained like this:When you are extremely close to God the holy spirit is right there in your ear his lips touch your ears when he says no and you obey his voice remains there, however when you hear him say no and disobey imagine yourself taking 5 steps back.He says no again and you disobey and have to take another 5 steps back.Eventually your miles away from the voice and it seems like hes not talking but he's still attempting to guide you.The word says he'll never leave you nor forsake you which is true but disobedience can have you farther back than you ever thought you could be.Obedience leads to favor and understanding what it is God wants us to do. Pleasing God is a sure way to ATTACK the enemy

• Chew.Swallow.Digest...The word of God

                  The bible is the most powerful handbook we have as christians. Inside is EVERY situation we will face,how they handled it (good or bad) and how God wants us to handle it.It allows us to read on stories and hear Gods responses to the actions of those that were in the story...Its really a sort of cheat sheet. Not only does he give us ten specific commandments but he also gives others punishments and praises we can learn from.Sorta like not doing what your big bro or sis got in trouble for...or doing what you saw them get praise for...Its important that you pray for understanding before reading your bible..if you have one of those thee thou art shall bibles maybe you should try a teen version or college version..a bible is TRULY the BEST INVESTMENT YOU CAN EVER MAKE IN YOURSELF. I associate the christian walk with God a lot like the process of eating food. Chew.Swallow.Digest.Lets take an apple, you must first make a conscious decision to put it in your mouth and chew.spiritually i associate this with just "believing" in God...the devil also believes in God thats not enough, just like as your chewing an apple you can spit it out.Next is swallowing..thats the action..you must read,pray,study,exercise faith,tithe,trust god,etc. then theres the digesting...thats where that apple we chewed and swallowed will be broken down and then sent throughout our bodies for nourishment.for example there are sugars in apples that are needed to help us get through the day,and there are fibers in apples that help our digestive system.Spiritually when we digest the word we can use different stories,chapters,parables etc. as a tool to help us get through temptation,loneliness,emptiness,depression,divorce, etc. So digest the word...and attack the Devil

               Genesis Chapter 3 V7 says "Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves." This is HUGE... It's important that we open our eyes and realize we too are naked,we too are weak in areas, we too have holes in our lives. After God handed out punishment and before he left he "made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." (ch3v21) How many of you are trying to cover wounds inflicted as a result of your mistakes in ways that YOU feel cover you.We serve a God who sees right through those things that we have constructed to cover our shame  but we also serve a God of mercy.One who even after we disobey Constructed a garment for us by the name of Jesus Christ, whose blood covers all of our sins...Repent today for your mistakes, take down your handmade garments, trust God to clothe you in a PERMANENT WAY..I love you and God loves you
       

Dont Forget To Be Grateful

Temptation Pt 1

Genesis Chapters 2&3
Hey Guys! Thanks a lot for joining me again! Whether this is your first time or you've viewed each of my previous post i appreciate you and I truly hope these post are a blessing to you.Lets start with a quick prayer.
    Our father who art in heaven, we come to you now humbling ourselves and our hearts in your presence.God we know that your word says when two or more gather in my name i shall be in the midst.We thank you..for your mercy, for your grace, for forgiveness, for your favor God. I pray that every heart reading this will be humbled and open to accepting your word God in the name of Jesus.AMEN!
Lets get right into it guys! As i began to reflect on temptation and how prevalent it is not only in todays society but in the bible i tried to put myself in the shoes of the one tempted. Now I studied whether that person passed or failed "the test" and through praying and seeking God i tried to come up with why they passed or failed. There was one thing that stuck out to me. GRATEFULNESS. I noticed that those who passed almost every time were grateful for what God had done or just who God was. And vice versa, those who didnt passed I often noticed a lack of Gratefulness..im here today to tell you "Dont Forget To Be Grateful."     Lets Go Waaaaay back to the Garden of Eden! Everyone knows this story so I wont beat a dead horse but what i want to talk about is What they had to be grateful of

• God created Adam from "THE DUST OF THE GROUND" and breathed into him the breath of life.
• God created Eve by putting Adam to sleep, taking out his rib and constructing her FROM THE RIB.
• In Gen ch 2 v16 God said "You are free to eat from ANY TREE IN THE GARDEN"

Sounds like some AMAZING things only God could do right? I believe if they had remembered what God did for them and Been Grateful for that, nothing would have been able to get their mind off God. I'm reminded of the story of Joseph.When tempted by Potiphars wife he turned her down saying my master has put me in charge of everything in this house i could not sin against him or my God in such a way.He was Grateful for the position the King had put him in.
Chapter 3 v1 says "Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.."I wanna stop there for just a second. The hebrew word for "crafty" and the Hebrew word for "naked" have nearly the same meaning.We know that in the time of Adam and Eve to be naked was to be shameless.In other words "It wasnt no shame in the serpents game." Most people see the serpent as flat out deceiving and the enemy but did you know that the serpent was one of Gods good creatures.God created the serpent. When v1 explains that he was more crafty than any of the wild animals it merely explains ONE of the characters that GOD had given the serpent.So since we can associate the word crafty in hebrew with naked in hebrew and naked is associated with being shameless I myself like to think someone who is shameless is someone who's strong.I saw a quote that said "The enemy doesnt fight us because we are weak, he fights us because we are strong." this is true...However the enemy attacks at the point of our weakness to make us see less of our strengths and to convince us that the only thing we are is that weakness. If we focus on being grateful for our strengths we might then be reminded of Gods love and his plan for us and this will warrant obedience in the area of our weakness. Obedience in the area of our weakness will produce STRENGTH where we WERE weak.BUT...it all began with being Grateful.
   The serpent was a good creature until "the great deceiver" clothed himself as a serpent insinuated a falsehood and portrayed rebellion as clever. Today i wanna ask you...Who in your life is just a deceiver dressed up as the serpent?Its important that we seek God and ask him to Identify those "deceivers" in our lives and to prohibit them access into our Garden. Its also important that each day we reflect on the things we are grateful to God for. A grateful person will be stronger in the face of temptation..If you roll out of your bed and check twitter,your bank account,txt your gf/bf etc BEFORE thanking God you ought to recondition your mind because the devil will use those things that you put before God to take your focus off of the things that God Has given you..In other words God has promised you the ENTIRE GARDEN and if you forget to be grateful you can become vulnerable to attacks to eat at the ONE WRONG TREE...Dont eat at the wrong tree...tell him thank you today...thanks guys I hope it was a blessing to you and tomorrow we'll be talking about arming up for the war..the bible has given us ammunition to use against the enemy when tempted we just have to seek it and we'll talk about that tomorrow but thanks so much for your time.Be Blessed.and Dont Forget To Be Grateful

Fall In Love With The PROCESS

     Hey guys I'm back. Todays blog wont be coming directly from my studies its something that was just racking my brain this morning while tweeting my random inspirational morning tweets...Its about the Process.It Started with a tweet i posted that said "wise people know what they want in the end..but they fall IN LOVE with the process..rather than the results." the next was "because they know focusing on getting there will NOT get them there but focusing on the importance of each day in getting there...will".Now don't get me wrong I am in no way saying you don't need to have that long term goal or that vivid picture in your mind of yourself at the finish line.In fact, I would say its imperative that you see yourself at the finish line..remember this "See it, Believe it, Achieve it!"..stole that from Dr. Dave Martin. So yes it is important that you see yourself there, it helps you to believe it which helps you achieve it but what i'm talking about isn't listed in that catchy little motivational saying..I'm talking about the process.
     I began to reflect this morning on what i think is one of the most detrimental things to growth, failing to condition your mind on exactly what its going to take to get YOU to your finish line,but rather spending your energy day dreaming about crossing the line. I'm so guilty of this. I'll share...for about two years now i've been wanting the physical stature of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.However...I have the SAME physical stature as the one i had two years ago..165 soaking wet with brick boots on as my dad would say.Mentally I have the same desire..still wanna look like The Rock..My actions however dont reflect in the slightest what i've "put my mind to" THAT, my friends, is because just "putting your mind to it" wont make it come true..I think theres a common misconception in that saying..What grandma meant when she said "you can be anything you put your mind to.." She didnt mean dream about it,tell your friends about it,idolize the person thats already there,doodle in your notebook about it and you can become it...Theres a process...A process that you must devote yourself ENTIRELY to..The sooner you accept that you must submit yourself to this process the sooner you can become great.I wont go to in detail with this process because i might literally write a book on it soon but i'll talk about the first and in my opinion most important step.God has given EACH of us ATLEAST one talent...the first step is..through prayer,through studying,through meditation etc find out your passion...he'll show you..I read that if theres something you want to do but you're scared of failing at it...nine times outta ten THATS your passion...its what keeps you up at night,it what you have dreams about,its what you're to shy to tell your friends because you dont want them to reject it because it means so much to you...Thomas Edison understood this process better than a lot of us...He attempted to invent the light bulb around a thousand times and he said "I didnt fail the light bulb 1,000 times the light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps" The fact is.The first attempt at inventing the light bulb impacted the final attempt...Start taking steps today in your process! Dont fall in love with riches or success...fall in love with the opportunity you have TODAY to make TOMORROW better...and so on and so on until you cross that finish line...ON YOUR MARK....GET SET...GO!!!

The Power of Favor

Genesis Ch 40 And Ch 41
FAVOR

      Whats up family I'm back for the second time I would like to thank God for the amazing word last time I know it was a blessing to somebody, it surely blessed and encouraged me. I'd also like to thank each and every person who read the last post, retweeted, favorited, told others to read it, spread the word etc. The feedback i got from you guys was absolutely amazing! I understand there was a couple issues with posting comments last time but i think we solved those so feel free to leave comments if you'd like.
     Alright...lets get in this word Y'ALL READY!! A couple of weeks ago i was in church (City of Hope International Shout out to pastor terrell fletcher) and my pastor spoke a little about how we were born fighters and it really stuck with me. He talked about how we were fighters before we are even born. Approximately 250 MILLION sperm race to the egg. And YOU were the winner out of 250 MILLION...ISNT THAT AMAZING?? I know these days it would be tough for me to win a foot race with just 25 people let alone 250 million. So i couldnt agree more with him that we are truly FIGHTERS...even before "day 1". But what i'd also like to contend is that not only did God create inside of us a fighter...he also placed some favor over our lives as well. I'd like to contend that every one of the two hundred forty nine million nine hundred ninenty nine thousand nine hundred ninety nine OTHER sperm we raced against were also living creations of God inside our father that he had a plan for. He planned for all 250 million of us how far we would get in the race and which ONE of us would WIN. If you are reading this..YOU, my friend, are that winner. And NOTHING but the FAVOR of God got you here.So i said ALLLL THAT to say. God favored you before you even reached your mothers egg.(IF YOU DIDNT THANK GOD OUT LOUD after you read that you ought to read it again and try again.)
       Now lets talk about the favor displayed in Genesis with the story of Joseph. I said in the previous post he was favored by his father at the time of his birth,he was favored on his journey,he was favored in the masters house,he was even favored in prison by being the head of the prisoners...BUT  lets talk about the rest of the story.Genesis chapter 40 introduces the cupbearer and the baker.Real quick I'd like to make sure you know how important the roles of these men were.They were high officers. The cupbearer was in charge of pouring THE KINGS drinks.He's not to be looked at as merely a slave think about it with one drop of poison in the kings cup he could kill THE KING.So he was a highly trusted individual.In other words just anybody couldnt be the cupbearer. Same goes for the baker. Alright, Genesis Ch. 40V1 says "sometime later the cupbearer and the baker "offended their master,the king of egypt". As a result pharaoh, the king of egypt put them into prison..guess which prison yall...THE SAME PRISON AS JOSEPH..aint that crazy(my mama voice). The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph and he attended them. A little while after they were in custody each of the two men had a dream...on the same night.The men were "dejected" because no one was able to interpret their dream.Joseph acknowledges that God is the only one who can interpret dreams.It is my belief that this acknowledgement and faith in God was the key to using him as a vessel to interpret the mens dreams. Now i want you guys to read the story for yourselves but in short one of the men was killed in 3 days and one of the men was returned to his position in 3 days.Joseph told the cupbearer who returned to his position to tell the king of what i did and get me outta here.
     Lets Reflect...THE FAVOR OF GOD IS ALL OVER JOSEPHS life...These men were sent to prison to go get Joseph out. God allowed them to get in trouble with the king because he had a plan, a plan to give them both dreams, allow Joseph to interpret those dreams and give him authentication. In other words these mens purpose was to prove that Joseph was, in fact, "the real deal". BUT, the cupbearer "forgot" Joseph, he "forgot" to tell the king. I quoted the word forgot not because i dont believe he truly forgot but because i believed God allowed him to forget because Joseph wasnt on Josephs time he was on God time....How many of you feel like your passing the test your trying to do the right thing but you just cant get out of your prison. Be reminded that he may not come when you want him but hes ALWAYS on time.TWO years passed and now PHARAOH was the one with the dream.According to ch41v8 "in the morning his mind was troubled" so he sent for all the magicians...none of them could interpret the dream...but guess who could???It was the cupbearer who was then reminded of what Joseph did and told Pharaoh about Joseph.Joseph was immediately brought to the king. LOOK AT GOD...look at his plan...it had to be the cupbearer who was sent to prison..of course none of pharaohs family was gonna go..and the cupbearer is who pharaoh sees EVERY TIME he gets a drink..hes the king hes always drinking..Had it been the gardener or someone with not as important as a role they might not have even known pharaoh had a dream.Gods plan is a perfect plan.Gods plan is the BEST plan! In short, Joseph is brought to Pharaoh,the king of Egypt, and he interprets the dream.He basically tells the king...There will be seven years of great abundance throughout the land.but they will be followed by seven years of famine and the abundance will be forgotten so during the seven years of abundance youre going to need to put someone in charge of the land to make sure we can store these crops so that during the 7 years of famine we'll be straight. Pharaoh asked his officials "can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?"...next thing you know in verse 41 pharaoh was saying "I HEREBY PUT YOU IN CHARGE OF THE WHOLE LAND OF EGYPT. Talk about gods favor!!!
        It is my prayer that God makes me your cupbearer today...I pray he uses me and sends me into your spiritual prison, whatever it may be, i pray he uses me as a vessel to show you your true greatness...the greatness that he has placed inside of each and every one of us...more than anything i pray that in the end we all glorify god by doing his will exactly as he would have us to..TODAY I WANT YOU TO KNOW...I LOVE YOU SO MUCH...AND GOD LOVES YOU EVEN MORE...Thank You

THE TESTING BEFORE THE BLESSING(JOSEPH IS TEMPTED)

 Genesis ch37-47

TEMPTATION,FAVOR,INTEGRITY VS REPUTATION, GODS PROMISE

Whats up guys/gals!! im extremely excited about my first post and first off I'd just like to thank you for taking the time out to read what I have to say.I've been studying and i really believe somebody will be enlightened by what God is using me to do.Just a little explanation about the way i plan to do things.This first post is going to be a parable that contains my next 4 topics(above in red) in the post to come.And from there I'll do another parable that contains future topics.I hope that  makes sense. lol. Also, you should know i could probably write a book on this story but im trying to paraphrase certain things to maintain your attention throughout the entire post.so without further of due we'll start with a refresher on the story of Joseph.

     Joseph was one of Jacobs twelve sons. Gen ch37v3 declares he was Jacobs favorite son since he was born to him in his old age (similar to the circumstance under which Jesus was born). As a result of this Favor from Jacob he made his son an ornate robe(a mark of his favoritism) As you could imagine this isolated Joseph among his brothers.It made them hate him, It made him a misfit.Just as God had planned.Let us be reminded that he said in jeremiah ch29v11 "for i know the plans i have for you.plans to prosper you and not harm you plans to give you hope and a future". As a result of this HATE his brothers plotted against him to kill their brother in ch37v18 but That wasnt in Gods plan.(if their is someone in your home right now tell them god wont let the devil do anything thats not already in his plan for your life..he wont allow it if in the end its not going to bring him glory) Reuben (one of Josephs brothers) convinced the others brothers to place him in a cistern (where he would later be sold). The brothers spotted a caravan of Ishmaelites riding camels that were carrying spice, balm, and myrrh. (sidenote:balm was a soothing oil with HEALING properties....myrrh was drunk to relieve pain and was seen as a GIFT FOR A KING. it was brought to jesus during his birth and was rubbed on his body during his death.) I'm convinced that the very items that brought Joseph into Egypt were symbolism of the pain he was bringing joseph out of and the healing he was already working in his life...but not yet..Joseph arrived in Egypt where he was a slave.The bible declares that Potiphar (the master) notices the favor of God on Josephs life so he put him in charge of his entire household and put in his care everything he owned..(smart man)because of this the entire household was blessed.IF FAVOR IS ON YOUR LIFE EVERYTHING YOU TOUCH WILL BE BLESSED. 

Joseph is tempted. ch39v6 describes him as "well-built" (possibly because of the rigorous slavework) and handsome. This lead to Potiphars wife coming on to Joseph saying "come to bed with me". I had to ask myself.what could she have seen in Joseph?Her husband was the master..joseph was merely a slave..but its not what she seen in him its what the devil seen in him..he saw what he would become.so he tried to use her to make him sin.Joseph refused explaining to her he could not sin against his master and in God such a way.

But one day she caught Joseph all alone.Asking him again "come to bed with me" she grabbed Joseph by the cloak and he ran.frustated with Josephs constant denial of her request she told her husband Joseph attempted to rape her.He was sent to prison. Now i bet you're wondering, but wait i thought you said Joseph had Gods favor, he passed the test why would God send him to prison. We often ask god questions like these but ultimately GOD HAS A PLAN..you see he had a plan to make Joseph KING..and he would've never became king had he succumb to the temptation of potiphars wife.he would've just been an head housekeeper sleeping with the masters wife. Some of you out their continue to fail to temptation.God has a plan to make you King of a certain aspect of your life but you can't get there because you repeatedly fail the test.God has a plan to make you King over your finances,King over your relationships, King over your career but you are too busy in bed with Potiphars wife.GET OUT OF THAT BED.TELL POTIPHARS WIFE NO THANK YOU.RUN OUT OF THAT PLACE LIKE JOSEPH DID IF SHE TOUCHED THAT CLOAK LEAVE IT CUZ YOU DONT NEED ANYTHING SHE TOUCHED. God has a plan for you. align yourself with his will PASS THE TEST...you might have to go through a spiritual prison but its only so he can bring you out and make you king. I highly encourage you to read the rest of the story..Thats all for now im trying not to write a book here..but if you've read all of this i sincerely thank you..and may god bless you..over the next topics we'll be talking about temptation....integrity versus reputation....gods promise...and favor