Home » Posts tagged 'Religion and Spirituality'
Find me where I am.
Sit me down, you too,
Is this about me, You-
No answer is found.
Are you from above-
There is dirt in your skin, I see the dust.
Just talk.
Desperation lives.
This voice is old,
My thoughts, seasoned.
Grace, mercy, love.
What comes-
What goes-
What stays-
There is a chief above every beast,
A master, His eyes are open.
Hide where-
Live, grow, renew,
Be more.
Find Him, find you.
Where he is, kneel down,
Now it begins.
Listen, God’s voice is in the air. His presence has not left you. You may feel inhibited because the path you walk on has curved without notice, but God’s hand is still near. Even when your eyes are full of tears and your life is nothing but a blur, you can travel forward. With your hand connected to His existence you will be guided through the curves and carried over the drop offs.
Call out to him, send your prayer above your abilities and hindrances, and send your praise past your discomfort and excitement. Reach out to him and allow him to touch you, and encompass you with his love and comfort. Receive God’s entire Spirit the moment he sends it to you. You can resist the delay of overcoming what is on life’s platter when you allow God to enter your spirit and fill every space.
Faith will make it easy to look for God’s presence. When you cannot hear Him believe he is speaking, when you cannot feel Him trust that he is near, when you see no evidence of Him, you must faith it. God wants to help you and he wants your confidence to be in Him and nothing else.
Don’t hesitate to communion with God. The level of language does not matter, but the sincerity of your heart does. Go ahead and talk to God today, he is waiting.
Scripture Inspiration; Psalms 28, Philippians 1
For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you. Matthew 6:14-15 KJV
To open your mouth and apologize, ask for forgiveness, or to forgive someone else is not always the thing the mind and heart wants to do. It is not difficult to talk about forgiveness, but actually doing it when there is a need is when the hesitation and struggle show up. How do you actually forgive others or seek forgiveness for yourself, making it something that is achievable rather than something that is only talked about.
I will share my experience with this issue from both sides. There are some people that I had to forgive and some that I had to apologize to so the air between us would clear. Forgiving others was not any easier than seeking forgiveness. I had to understand what I was doing and why. It was about letting go of what could not be changed in each situation. In some cases it meant forgiving those who did not apologize, those who were not sorry about their actions and apologizing to others in a general way for what I was not aware of doing.
What really had to happen for me to apologize and to forgive others is a change in my heart about what I felt others deserved and what had happened to me. I also had to consider what was more vital to me holding on to what occurred or letting it go so that I could live better. I let it go, vengeance and all that was keeping forgiveness from flowing out of me and into me. My trust in God and my relationship with him allowed me to see and do this.
To master forgiveness you have to come to a point of believing that you will be okay if you let go of what cannot be undone or changed. Release it like a balloon full of helium and do not worry about where it lands. Remember to trust God. If you are trusting God there is not any situation that you have to go through alone. Keep him in your life daily right at the front and he will be with you during every good or trying situation you enter into.
Scripture Inspiration; Psalms 30 KJV
Prayer is armor. It is one that protects, develops, and increases the spirit, characteristics, and the abilities you already have. This is an armor that is needed for the war that comes into your life with or without warning.
I am not talking about the kind of prayer that is done just for one to say that he or she has prayed for the day, week or month. I am focusing on the prayer of intimacy and growth, the prayer that will transform you (your thoughts and actions) and even what you see as you pray. This prayer is come by seeking God’s face, not looking up into the sky and imagining Him as a shape of a cloud. I am speaking of getting low, getting your own face hidden so His can be sought. This kind of prayer allows you to feel His presence and to hear His voice. This is prayer as armor.
When suffering loss, financial distress, or any kind of life altering obstacle you feel it, when you are attacked you feel it physically, mentally, and emotionally then you feel the impact to your spirit. Most attacks in life become a spiritual war. You are faced with being up or down or stuck somewhere in between and you run from one end to the other trying to keep a balance. Without the proper armor you will feel an intensified blow, become exhausted and may have trouble recovering. Even when you are armed you must be sure to use all of your armor to get the most benefits from what is available. Don’t let your armor sit dormant while you suffer.
Become mentally equipped to execute the use of your armor. The mentally equipped will keep fighting if the will to succeed is dominant and if faith in a winning outcome is present. In the mind is where the battle begins and if your mind is ready you can move forward believing that your armor will do you some good. You will believe that you can use what you have to effectively counteract what comes against your spirit.
You have the armor within you strengthen it, all you need is: time, a private place, your voice, your ears, your mind, and faith. Prepare yourself, life is happening every day.
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not ear me: But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me. Psalms 66:18-20
Overcome: to defeat someone or something, to gain control of something difficult, to affect someone very strongly (Merriam-Webster, 2014).
Satan is not for you, he is not excited about your victories. He feels good when you fail, are overtaken by life, and find yourself crawling instead of standing. He enjoys seeing you injured. When you are injured you have potential to be eliminated.
Recall a time when you were stumbling over the rocks on you path and chose to voice your issues to others; what response did you get? If you have witnessed others sit up with excitement and tuned in to hear your misery you can use that kind of response to gauge exactly how Satan is behaving when he has injured you and is waiting to overcome you. He is enjoying with anticipation, circling his prey, preparing to devour you. Some of the people in your circle or those you communicate with may not want to devour you, but if they seemingly perk up at your troubles they have a similar spirit. They may not appear to be harmful, but they are. People of that nature bring negativity and negativity drains life of energy, energy that you need to keep from being defeated.
Now consider when you have succeeded or overcame, you shared the good news about the promotion you received, the insight you gained from a recent failure or the debt you paid off, and what happens? Does the body language of your audience change; does the voice of a certain friend or acquaintance become monotone or maybe these people cannot get a vocabulary word out that exudes congratulations or a “way to go friend”. It could be that you have excelled where they have not, however it is not a positive responds and this is how you can expect Satan to respond. He is disappointed and is not going to congratulate you, but he is thinking of how to overcome you for the future. He is planning an attack, a way to injure you, or a way to eliminate you through the way you deal with life events.
You can stop the process of elimination, you can overcome. You can overcome sin and be reconciled to God. You can overcome obstacles and day to day blows and leave Satan defeated. When you are able to overcome in such a way you can then feel and live out the meaning of the scripture that reads like this: “If God is for us, who can be against us” (Romans 8:31KJV). If you are an overcomer you are becoming more intimate with God. You have learned to be equipped by Him through prayer and fasting and he is for you. You are his called, and his chosen, and his faithful; God is for you, but Satan can be against you. If you are living as a diluted version of the power Satan has in the earth by way of the sin you have not yet escaped, he can come against you, but with God you will overcome.
Live to be an overcomer and overcome to live.
Scripture Inspiration; Romans 8, Revelation 12, 13 KJV
For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else. Isaiah 45:18 KJV
For His magnificence, His richness, the thickness of His power he is deserving of my worship and my adoration. He is God, and I exalt him.
He made man from dirt, and sculpted the woman from a bone. He designed us with perfection in mind; with a breath, life was created. Our life continues because of his air; we are examples of his power. What he has constructed is grand; the sun, the moon, the stars, the waters, and the land. His glory is divine. The day brings light and without hesitation night arrives at its appointed time. The power of God is at work each day and it goes unnoticed at times. The grass grows in spring and flowers bloom. The leaves of the trees lend shade and a colorful back ground before they fade. The snow falls and it melts. The rain feeds the land and we are provided with food. The sun supports life of living things. His glory surrounds us every day. The heavens he has waiting for us to occupy; a majestic place where all is excellent. The streets are radiant and filled with mansions that beam because of his light. When we arrive to that place will be able to praise him without interruption. We will not get tired, our voice will always be strong, and we will not have the cares of the world in our thoughts. We will have all the strength and help we need. Peace and joy will be among us all. We will be free to worship him always.
He is a magnificent God and I love to be in awe because of him.
Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psalm 16:11 KJV
It may be hard to hold on when everything seems to be leaning in the direction of defeat. Defeat may even disguise itself as peace, but there is no real peace when you give up on your life. It is usually not difficult to give up, you can simply stop. To keep striving takes commitment and strength you exude these. You want to make it and you are fighting to live, fighting to change, if not you would be gone by now and change would not be a concern.
Although you are fighting sneaky thoughts come in and you think no one is there, but you have pulled your own hand back from circulation; you have crossed your arms and left no opportunity for those who care. Don’t be deceived any longer someone still has a hand hanging in the air, waiting for the warmth from your life. Someone still needs you as much as you have been in need. Tell someone that you need help someone who will listen closely. Speak like this is your last chance; speak like you are clinging to life as it dangles over a cliff with nothing beneath to break the fall.
You can live and progress and love your life enough to grip it and hug it tightly, like you want it. There is a path to lead you out of the darkness that is drowning you. It is a path just for you, it is not exactly the same as anyone else’s, but there are many like things on that path to bring you into a better state of living. There is a repairer for every breach that has separated you from the love of having a lively soul and life that does more than exist. His name is Jesus. He stands between you and God waiting to reconcile you, even when you thought things were solid because you have known God for so long. He is there for every breach. Begin to speak.
Almost every time I kneeled to pray I was in need, but then I found pleasure there and eventually I rested on my knees just to commune and feel the mystery of God. Search for Him, open your mouth and let God hear you, open your heart for change, and listen for the opportunity to grow. What you do not know He will teach you.
Scripture Inspiration; Psalm 16:1-11 KJV
Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Jeremiah 23:23
Omni
He is present…
I feel His glory…
I cry out…
He appears…
Before a sound is made…
Before I ever pray…
He is here…
Teaching me to receive my help…
He never leaves…
At times I forget He is near…
But it is Him who keeps me strong…
I say His name and help is here…
He is a wonder…
An everywhere God…
By him therefore let us offer sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. Hebrews 13.15
It is rare to find someone who has not thanked another person for one reason or another. We all have shown our appreciation in some way, it may have been for a gift, a compliment, or for the help that we were offered. The gratitude that we exhibit to one another sometimes rolls right off from the tongue by habit. We are helped, we feel good, and we express our feelings. When we recognize that we express our appreciation in this way to people on any given day we will also realize that we are capable of releasing great thanks. Thanks that comes from deep within our hearts, a thanks that only God deserves. In time this thanks becomes your worship to him which is initiated by your increasing praise.
God deserves the kind of thanks that he creates in your heart. The thanks inside of you will not be the same as anyone else’s, it is personal. It has been developed inside your heart over time. Everything that you have experienced with God builds up your thanks and turns into praise before progressing into worship. Once you have a clear picture of what God is to you and how God has been great to you the need to praise him will become alive.
To know what God has done for you, you must take time to know and understand him, his miracles, and his son. You cannot worship God the way that he wants you to (in spirit and in truth) if you do not know who or why you worship (John 4:24). After accomplishing these things you will be able to give a meaningful praise to God because you will know who you are praising and why. When a meaningful praise exists inside of your heart you will be open to experience an extreme praise. Your heart holds the background for your extreme praise and you can releases it with a simple background check.
When you authorize a background check you allow your extreme praise to exit your heart. An extreme praise does not consist of any hold backs. As it builds you will notice your intense love for God and see your need to worship him. This worship happens when you are devoted. Being devoted means your love for him is greater than your love for any other person, place, or object in your life. It is your honor and fear for him. A true worship experience with God ignites feelings that no other can achieve for you. The experience will cause you to want to release more praise to him and it will give you another memory to store in your heart.
To praise and worship God is a part our purpose. When our praise flows freely from our beings we please God, and he in return blesses us with more of his greatness. We have thanks, praise, and worship inside of us, but what are they to have if we do not release them to our creator. In our thanks we find delight, strength and hope. Through praise we receive our needs and desires. During worship our love for God grows, our faith increases and we become aware of a rest that is surrounded by peace and joy. We need all three of these qualities to be active in our hearts. If we find that they are not, we must do whatever is needed to develop a background that will bring these qualities back to life.
Scripture Inspiration; Psalm 145
Do not be limited to what others imagine you as. Everyone is free to have thoughts and their own opinions, but you do to have to live within the jurisdiction of anyone’s mind. It does not matter what gifts, skills and abilities you have or what you have done people will categorize you. If you try, and strike three times some will label you as out even if they have knowledge that God can do all things and change all things. People limit God so why would limits not be put on you.
There are some who will see that you are on your third strike and they smell failure and expect it to reign. God sees opportunity when others are drawing a blank. He sees that you do not give up when you are challenged and that you are not ashamed to start over when you fail. Others see your failure without knowing your struggle. They do not know that during your adventure you acquired new information for the future although you struck out. Many will not read your story as success they will only see your strike and what you have not accomplished.
God see the success. Each time you have failed God knew that there would be a greater opening in your heart, mind and soul for him to enter into. He knew that you were not out, but ready to come into something new. God knew that you were in no rush to get to the top because he hid the concept of growth in your heart for you to find. While others thought you were crumbling and were waiting for you to be swept away you were progressing. God was molding you and developing you. Now you have a strong resume for the job ahead of you.
Keep trying, keep moving, and keep your ears on God’s voice. Anyone can come along to attempt to break you while you are already broken. Let them waste their energy, their best efforts do not compare to God. There is no piece of you he cannot find and make whole again. God sees all of you while others are only there for some of your plays and innings. They blink, day dream, and focus on the imprint you left the last time you fell, and that sums up what they are able to imagine for you.
However, with God you are free, free to live in God’s vision and you are not limited to what anyone else believes to be your reality. Look at all that you have, and top it with God’s ability and he will show you what you can do with what he has given to you. Stand, shake off the excess, tuck in your blouse or straighten your tie and walk past every strike and false limitation ready to live through God’s eyes.
Scripture Inspiration; Psalm 56:1-13 KJV
Spiritual Pulse 