Friday, December 8, 2017

DISTRACTED



(John 11:25-26), Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life, He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.  Do you believe this?

I dedicated my life to the Lord Jesus Christ, when I was 19 years of age.  I was reading a book and at the end was a simple prayer to pray and ask the Lord Jesus Christ to come into my life and my heart. My first husband was in the Nave and we were living in Misawa, Japan.  I used to take long walk in the part at night because it seemed like every star in the entire world was in Japan. I began reading my bible and praying every day.

At first it was difficult understanding the King James Bible, but I managed to somewhat understand enough to know that Jesus Christ was the answer to all my needs and wants and that prayer was the most effective tool when it came to having a relationship with the Lord. I had a prayer life and I was in love with Jesus Christ.  The walks in the park was my special time with Him and I loved that special time.  I enjoyed being in the presence of the Lord and I knew that I never wanted to give that up.

When I returned to the states I was divorced and very lonely. As I got older and life became more complicated, I ventured down a different road than the one that God wanted me to take.  I had my first son by the time I was nineteen years old and already going through my first divorce.  I would still pray, but I had no prayer life.  I began hanging out with the wrong crowd of people and made a lot of wrong decisions.

I started drinking, smoking marijuana and cocaine.  That became a part of my lifestyle.  I didn’t go out partying on the weekends because the type of partying that I was doing wasn’t exactly legal.  I found myself in places that I would have never, if it were not for drugs.  I looked over a lot of things in my life while I was addicted.  I spent time in rat infested houses just to do drugs.  Just by looking at me, you would have never know that I was an addict.  I was a working class addict.  I worked in corporate offices and wore suits to work everyday.  I went through drug rehab and still went back to doing drugs.

One day I found a pocket bible in my 13 year old son’s pocket.  He had been carrying it to school.  I asked him why he had it in his pocket and he said, “Just in case I need it”.

Then I remembered a promise that I made to God when I was that 19 year old young lady that took long walks in the park praying and just having conversations with the Lord.

That my kids would be raised in the church.  So I started going to church.  Did I stop doing drugs and drinking?  No, I didn’t.  But I did begin to pray more and ask God to deliver me.  Was I delivered right away?  No.  But I kept going back to church.  I would go to church and come home to drugs and drinking.  Was I mocking God? No, because I kept on praying and kept on going back to church.  I recognized that I couldn’t be restored without the Lord. 

One day, after service, I went to Bible Sunday School and as we were going into class, our Sunday School Teacher was anointing everyone’s forehead.  I got my forehead anointed and went to find my seat.  Once I sat down I began crying.  I cried the whole hour.  The teacher didn’t say anything to me, but she did put a box of tissue on my desk and she kept on teaching.  That was the day that I was delivered from alcohol and drug abuse.  It was sealed because I kept going back.  What I didn’t get from the 10 Step Program, I received from my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Woman of God, if you are at a point in your life where the devil seems to be wreaking havoc, it is because he wants to keep you distracted and keep you from the Lord’s promise.  As longs as Satan can keep you concentrating on the things of this world, he will keep you from the blessings of God. 

Satan wants to keep you distracted by using any means necessary, so that you will not be in the ministry that God has for you.  He wants to keep you distracted, so that darkness will overshadow the light of the Lord.  The more blessings that God has for you, the bigger the distractions will be in your life.

If you are distracted, it is time for you to be released from the hands of the devil.  It is time for you to start your ministry.  In fact, some of you that will read this message know that you have a ministry inside of you that needs to be birth.  Every time you try to pick yourself up, the enemy pushes you back down.  You take two steps towards God and he pushes you back three steps. 


The devil is cunning, wicked and very deceitful.  Don't let the devil keep you distracted any longer.  It's time for you to go forward and not look back.  Move forward into the ministry and spiritual gifts that God has ordained for you.


Wednesday, October 11, 2017

TAKING TWO STEPS

Good morning, Mighty Woman of God.  I pray that you are blessed and highly favored of our Lord Jesus Christ, as you follow after Him.  I speak peace and abundantly love unto you from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Today, I am going to give you a message that the Lord wanted me to give from my spiritual daughter Nicole Lofton's book titled, "The Women's restoration Devotional".
(Hebrews 12:1), Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us."
How many times has something happened and you felt stuck?  Maybe you felt like every time you even attempted to move forward, something else happened.  Maybe you cried out of frustration or maybe you felt as if you were going to lose your mind.  I have felt that way before too.
I have been in that place where it seemed like taking a step forward really resulted in taking four steps backwards and I began to wonder why.  I realized it was mostly because I was more focused on the problem instead on the problem solver (God).  Sometimes I was so focused on the problem that I could not see that there was a reason for what I was going through; it was indeed for a bigger purpose.
The trials that we face are to make us stronger, but sometimes they confuse us, they also tend to distract us, and eventually they hold us back.  when we put all our focus on the problem, the problem takes over.  We have given that problem strength that it didn't even know that we had.
In the scripture referenced above, God tells us to "lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and run with endurance the race that is set before us".  We have to push our problems to the side letting them know that they have no power over us.  We know that we cannot tackle our problems on our own; we need help from God.  In order to receive that help, we have to be willing to hand them over to God and let Him help us.  Let's work to keep our mind on the problem solver instead of the problem.
ME:  The bible says, "I will keep those in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on me."  I was also reminded by the Spirit of the Lord that, a lot of times, in certain circumstances in our lives, we ask God to help us with our problems; but there is also a time that we have to just say, "Father, I won't ask you to help me, I need for you to just take over.  You don't need my help, I'll just mess it up anyway by trying".  That is what God means when He says, "Take your hands off the problem, completely."  I have found that simply saying, "Spirit of the Living God, please do for me what I am incapable of doing for myself, in Jesus name, thank you."  AMEN!

Saturday, September 9, 2017

WE FALL DOWN

I pray that you are all blessed and highly favored of
our Lord Jesus Christ.  And that you are growing spiritually.

Proverbs 24:16, For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity.

I was talking to my oldest son the other day and he told me that when he looks at my life, he is able to be encouraged.  You know sometimes it takes a real person, someone not famous to look at and say to yourself, "I can do that, I can make it". 

You see my oldest son and daughter were with me when I lost my apartment due to drugs.  They were with me when I had to give them to family members because I had to go to rehab center.  They can recall the times that lights were off.  Even though I had a great job, it went to drugs.  They can recall watching me get abused by ex.

When I left Chicago to move to Vegas, I had a servant of the Lord spirit.  I was used to teaching bible study and ministering every other week in church.  But when I got to Vegas, that all went out the window.  I enjoyed those darn slot machines.  I lost sight of my Lord Jesus.  I would say that I had definitely fallen again.

Each time that you fall down, get back up stronger.  Let that fall mean something.  Each time that I fell, it seemed to me that I got stronger and stronger.  The Lord lifted me higher and higher.  The way that you can get stronger is because you grab a hold of Jesus a little bit tighter, just touch the hem of His garment.  The next time you fall down, let that fall mean something, get back even stronger. Put up your dukes and say to the devil, "Is that all you got?"  A just man/woman falls 7 times.  

Jesus is my BFF and I won't unfriend Him and He won't unfriend you. PRAISE GOD!