Faith That Hears

Romans 10:17

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Just suppose for a moment faith was a man. Faith would not speak to you unless you spoke the Word of God.
Just suppose for a moment you had to communicate with him to get things done. Would you speak the thoughts your mind, or would you speak the word of Scripture? I submit to you that you would have to speak the word of Scripture.

The language of faith is the word of God. And the language of God is the Word of Faith. You don't have one without the other.

In order for you to be saved you must have faith.

In order for you to be healed you must have faith.

In order for you to be delivered you must have faith. Not only must you have faith but you must speak the language of faith.

Fear is an enemy to Faith
Faith does not speak fear.

Faith does not receive fear .

Faith does not walk in the same path. In fact, faith destroys fear.

Sadly, fear is sometimes easier to believe in faith. Fear will present an evidence so compelling, that if you're not careful you will believe its story. Fear is, false evidence appearing real. Fear is a a deceiver and an impostor. Faith will not show you any evidence. In fact, faith, tells you to look to the word of God and take God at his word. Faith will tell you to fill yourself with the word of God. Faith demands that you believe that God is, an he rewards of those that diligently seek Him. Faith demands that you put away the words of doubt and unbelief. Doubt and unbelief are stoppers of getting things accomplished in God. God was pleased with and rewarded every man who took a hold of faith.
Faith always points you to God and to take confidence in what God says. Faith always ask you to recite and declare God's Word. Faith will always ask you to believe no matter what you see hear or feel.

If faith was a man, he probably wouldn't get along with religious folks. Religious folks have a way of holding on to their superstitions. They have a way of holding on to their dogmas and doctrines. Religious folks rather follow their traditions and  rituals. And will challenge you by saying these things have worked for years and they will work now.

I was told that none religious people can sometimes receive from God more quickly that church folks because they will believe and speak the language of faith. Hmmm.

If faith was a man would you be well acquainted with him or would he be a stranger?
Are you listening to the call of faith? Are you understanding his words. Do you know the difference between faith and empty words.

Hold on my brother, hold on my sister to the word that God has given you. Hold on to his word of promise. He has promised to work it out for you and he will. He is not slack concerning his promise!

Prayer That Listens

Prayer that Listens

There are so many voices in the world. There are so many voices we allow  in our minds, but there is one voice of heaven that speaks to our spirit. In the stillness of prayer, not prayer of just asking, but prayer of listening also. Listening for the voice of God to speak to us, to give us direction, to give us focus, to give us clarity. Not by imagination, or wishful thinking, but to actually hear God speak in our spirit. Not too many people will like listening prayer, because it takes determination to stay in one place and just listen.
Learning to differentiate the voice God vs the voice of the imagination is key to listening prayer. If you are not careful and really listen, the mind will play tricks on you. You must learn the difference between the voices. The voice of God will speak from his word. The voice of the imagination will only speak to profit your flesh.

Many times, God will give directions. Have you ever been in your car traveling, and that still small voice says, to go,or not  to go a certain direction? You hear it, but ignore it. Down the road something happens. You say to yourself, if I had only listened to my first mind. It was not your first mind that was speaking. It was the Spirit of God trying to warn you. Some may say, that doesn't make sense. God doesn't speak to you like that! But more times than one, when you take heed to that voice, you remain safe, and you prosper.

An effective prayer begins by praying the Word of God. You shouldn't empty your mind of thoughts, but you must fill you're mind with the word of God. You must keep your imagination in check. In other words, say to yourself I'm not going to listen to my own thoughts, but I seek to hear only the word of God. If you have to, close your eyes in order to shut everything else out. If you have to cover your eyes or your face with a cloth.  You must concentrate on, focus on, God alone.
When performing the other types of prayer you concentrate on what you're asking God for. You either have a Christmas wish list, or a laundry list to present before the Lord. You begin that type of prayer at a disadvantage. It is prayer that seeks self-willed desires. It more or less tells God to be your butler or servant. Give me, bring me, let me have, I want, my desire, my need, I give you Lord. The one exception is when one is praying the word.

Many will spend their time on their knees praying and at the end of the prayer say, thy will be done. Yet you have just prayed your whole will, but at the end you say that thy will be done. Where was God's will in the beginning of your prayer? Were you just hoping that he would see past your desires? Were you just hoping he would just understand your humanity? God will speak to you. With all certainty he will answer your prayer, but what does God want for your life? What is his will? What is his determination? What is his desire?

... I don't know, you say ! Exactly!

I am NOT saying asking is not praying. The etymology of the word pray is to ask.
You must know the prayers also a conversation between you and God. And what I am saying is that in a conversation, one speaks, one listens and there is an exchange.  And if you are not listening can you not hearing his answers for you.  I've learned that prayer posters you in a position of battle or thanksgiving also. I've learned a prayer calls you into action. What kind of relationship do you have if you are doing all the talking? What kind of relationship do you have when it's all about you? What kind of relationship do you have when you're doing all the leading? Relationship is two-way, but God must lead.

Just a short time ago, I became very afraid, because I couldn't hear the voice of God. I have been used to listening and hearing God speak to me in the morning. Long before the sunrise, God has given me the course of the day. But I wasn't getting that anymore. I couldn't hear the thing that was so dear to me, the voice of God speaking to his servant. Going from one point of the day to the other not hearing from God. I had to turn to this word, the written word. It is my source of consolation. Yes I heard his voice through His Word. Yes I understood his love for me. I had grown accustom to hearing him speak to me in the morning. After spending time with him in his word, I begin to hear his voice again. I let him take lead. Glory hallelujah!!!

I encourage all that read this blog to practice listening to God. I encourage you to listen to his voice and differentiate the voice of your imagination. Seek to know his will first. Seek to understand his love for you. Know that he is not going to allow anything to happen to you. He loves you that much. It may seem like you're futile activity because you were used to fill in the air with your voice. Keep on listening it will pay off.

The Struggle

The spouse fight, what does it look like to those that are on the outside looking in or those who are on inside involved in, the struggle. To say the least, it is an embarrassing moment. It is not what you dreamed of on your wedding day.
I hate fights between couples.  It is just too much. Some say it matures a couple, but it is just too much for me. The thrill is gone or the honeymoon is over. Those terms are terms that really cast great dispersions on marriage. Yes we all understand the classic power struggle, but fighting  should not be named among  those who are in the church, especially to those who are "saved". Where is the yielding to God? Where is the understanding that God be in every aspect of the marriage? What trouble is there if you have the understanding that God is first?; Prayer is the first consultant of the marriage, but  many people go right past the God thing.
She hurt my feelings or he hurt my feelings are the excuses used to justify a position or stance. I have seen marriages broken over careless words, and like a thrown stone, they can't be taken back. Ten, twenty or thirty years of marriage broken because of careless words. Words that would not be uttered, but someone musters the courage to say something that shouldn't be said. If Jesus was standing there and knew the thoughts of the heart and you were were aware he knew them perhaps you would repent for even thinking them. 
There are things that even best friends should not say to each other. Maybe that is an issue also, the couple failed to become friends in the relationship, let alone best friends. Perhaps the line in the marriage vows that states forsaking all others. We have perhaps failed to make each other number one.
Our struggle is God's struggle. I am NOT saying that conflicts don't happen in marriage , they do. But to fight, what is the purpose? God did not call us to fight. He called us into love  and love is not fighting.
I'm going to get my way I'm going to do my own thing, marriage is about me anyway. You marry me for better or for worse. Certain things should just not be.
It makes you wonder why did you get married in the first place. Did you hide your real feelings in courtship? Were you masking you really were? The big question, are you faking it with God also? Maybe you were naive concerning marriage and relationships. Maybe you married him or her because you look good together.
Well you don't look good now. Like I said in the beginning, this is very embarrassing to the vows you made on your wedding day!

Draw Me Closer

What is the full extent of your love to me?

To see a million beautiful sunsets, in the comfort of your arms;

to know the warmth of your love throughout an eternity;

to walk along the path way of beauty, being guided by your presence,

as we talk along the way and you show me that you were always there with me...

Oh God love divine, master of all pleasantries, oh great king of heavenly pleasure,

your word has been my rest, it is this love so tender that encompasses my life time.

An eternal God with an eternal love for me, I can't fathom or imagine the extent of his love towards me.

You have said you have loved me with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have you draw me.

I draw closer and closer to you everyday. It is your will I seek, it is your breath I breathe, it is your face I know.

I surrender myself to you, and to you along. There is no other lover! There can never be!

Draw me closer to your divine presence.

Draw me closer to you

I Am In Your Hands

No human can give me, what you give me.

I've tried to listen to all the voices, but there is no voice, like your voice.

Friends and well-wishers cheer me on, some even chastise me.

Some give me well thought out solutions, solutions that will work for anyone else, but they do not work for me!

My life has always been in your hands, dear God.

Like the  friends of Job, they can only see what their eyes allow them to see.

They have limited vision because they are human.

They only know what they want for themselves.

I've always received word from you, a message that has always been very clear.

I've always depended upon your voice to guide me in my darkest hours.

I have always trusted your word.

Your word has been declared over my life many times.

And without fail, you have delivered me.

I have declared your word over the lives of others, and without fail, you delivered them.

What is so special about this time?

Why is it, that your voice seems so far away.

It seems like you have forsaken me.

I know, in my heart of hearts, that is not true.

You have never forsaken me.

You have never left me alone.

When I thought I was alone before, I found myself surrounded by your love.

Mama used to say, prayer brings life.

I am never going to leave your presence.

I'm never going to leave your fellowship.

I will just draw closer to you.

You have very strong hands.

You hold the universe in your hands.

You control the cosmos.

You authored the evolution of time.

I was hidden in you, from the beginning.

My course was marked off, my steps were ordered.

You went before me, and  prepared my way.

You went to my last breath, and then came back to my first breath and set the scope of my life.

You smiled and said I love you my son.

You said, my life is in your hands.

No one can take it from you.

You said to me, "you will have hills and mountains.

You will have valley moments.

There will be hurdles.

I have given of my promise.

Do not be afraid of the enemies that plot your demise.

Do not be afraid up his threatenings.

For I will set you up on a rock, I will set you out of the reach of them all.

You are in my hands.

Your first breath praised me.

In my presence during your worship, your breath became one with my breath.

In prayer, we breathe the same breath.

In your darkest hours I gave you breath.

Breathe me in now. 

I am the breath of life.

In an appointed time, in your last breath, you will thank me.

 

I Am My Mother's Child

I imagine at 52 years of age it's a little late to be saying, I am my mothers child. I've been grown for years now and yes, I see myself as my mothers child. My mother passed away about four years ago.
I remember being a baby standing on the side of the crib with the fluorescent light beaming against the purple background.

Living in a small apartment in the city of Chicago. We live on a Boulevard. Like most Boulevards in  Chicago, there was a Park was in the middle. My younger mother and father would have picnics back then. Fried chicken, french fried onion rings, potato salad all spread out on a red and white  blanket.
Mom also took us everywhere. Going to the clinics, lunches  packed with salami on toast. Catching Chicago city buses, which ran on electricity. Remembering the sparking high wires as they made their way  through the city in the early 1960's. Getting shots from the clinic my brother, I would scream very loud long before the needle made contact with the skin. The alcohol oder was strong because it was what they used to sanitize equipment during that time. Sometimes she would pick us up from the baby sitter's house, or from school. Remembering taking off all our clothes at the laundromat to be washed. Remembering the neighborhood schools how we would all crowd around the popular and friendly principal. Being taught how to cross on the green light. Summers on the outside with our friends.

Moving away from the large city to the small city. What a different way of life. Mother taking us and registering us for school. Birthday parties  with relatives and friends. Baseball football and basketball in the park. Mom saying, I'm gonna tell your father, which caused us to straighten out right then and there. Being called home for dinner by our first and middle names, of which everyone in the neighborhood knew. Mom behind the stove cooking. Mom praying for us in the middle of the night. Mom was always there. Always smiling, always teaching, always cleaning, forever faithful to my father.

Now I look into my own eyes and see my mother looking back at me, reminding me of simpler times past. Yes we have all of the pictures of those times, yet when I want to see her looking at me, I look in the mirror. It is a cathartic moment for me. When I need some peace away from some of the stress of being an adult with responsibilities  I seek the peace I remember in her eyes, I look in the mirror.
Also mother would walk around the house singing hymns. Many times now, I find myself doing the same.

Thank you God for giving my mother's eyes to always be with me.

 

I Am My Mother's Child!!!

Shadows Of A Foolish Past

1 Corinthians 13:11

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

Adults act childish at times. It makes you wonder, what is mentally going on in the minds of some people ? What has transpired in their past to make them act like a child without regard for others?
I remember growing up, it was said as an adult you don't do this, or that. There are just certain things adults don't do.
• An adult is an adult because he/she knows how to distinguish what is proper and what is not.
• To get angry at the drop of a hat or to keep your composure is the difference between mature and immature.
Growing up, it was practical to listen to the teachers. They were training us for what was to come in the future.
Where and when was our training lost?
Where did we lose our way?
One of the things that my parents stressed, "you'd better listen to those teachers". So that was our word of warning they expected for our learning. I thought it was the same was for everybody.
The bible says, Proverbs 22:15
Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
Wow, we knew when the teacher called home, we were in trouble. I can see my dad's eyes even now as I write. He wanted to know why , if we had the opportunity to get a good education why would we jeopardize that by disregarding the things that the teachers told us to do. Why would we disrespect their authority? Why would we disobey the things they said? It was not only the teachers in school, but our Sunday School teachers, and our Bible teachers also. Also our teachers were older adults that knew the way.
We were in school for learning how to prepare for our future.
Our history is full of examples a people not being educated for fear of those in control, that learning would cause an uprising in society. Not having an education was the plus in society for the oppressors. If you couldn't read or write, oh so much the better. This was the history but my parents knew all too well. Repression of Education was a tool used to keep people in a certain social, economic and subservient bracket.
My parents wanted the best for their children. There were certain things that they were not going to have, and one of those things being going to school and not getting an education.
I remember other children whose parents would come and fight the teachers for their children when the children were in the wrong. They actually came to school to fight the teachers. Now of course there were some bad teachers, but the majority a teachers were there to educate the students.
Some of my best memories are about my teachers. Yes there were those kids that came to school for different reasons. School for some was a place, where some kids would act bad all day long, as if they have no home training. Looking back now, I suppose they didn't. School for others was a place where some would act out their aggressions and fight everybody. Some never learned the value of an education.
Bad behaviors are learned behaviors. You learn what you can get away with. You learn how to manipulate the system. You learn how to get around certain things. You learn to manipulate people. You learn to bully some and those you can't. These are all learn bad behaviors.
All the super cool people I knew in elementary school s. Sad isn't it?
What is Sad, to me, to see adults in the workplace and people in the public sector act like foolish children. Some throw tantrums. Some also show their rear. Some will mess up things for others. I have even seen people sabotage other peoples work. They gain some type of satisfaction in making it hard for others to work.  They see it as their job to make it hard on someone else and to make a name for themselves. You have to wonder what is going on in their minds.
In relationships, people act in strange ways also. They make it very hard on their partners and friends. They also show their rears.
What type of relationship is that whereas I make it hard on the other person. What kind of relationship is that where I fuss constantly because I think that a person deserves to be fussed at. Who batters the one they love. Who acts in a way to make the other person uncertain? Have we no fathers or mothers for teachers? Have we no one to teach us the right way to treat our love ones? Did we not have one who could prepare us for the future? Or were the people we were around as young people teaching us the wrong things?
Some people in learning to be adults took on some foolish ways they rebelled against all that they were taught. Some rebelled against society. Some rebelled against God and religion . Some just rebelled against everything. Some found it easier just to have a rebellious attitude. Some found it easier just to be mean to people. Some have been hurt to the extent they now want to hurt others. They got into foolish relationships in which they were warned by others who had the wisdom to see through facades the other person was displaying. Others reach out in love and asked do you really want what you think you see? Some said open your eyes and your heart to God. The persons went headlong into the relationship and was hurt very badly. Now years later they are hurting others. The foolish past is creeping into the present. They did not listen to their teachers. They did not take heed to the wisdom of the elders. Now their lives are in ruin.
It is now the time to relearn the elementary lessons. It is now the time to retool. It is now time to seek out teachers who can show us how to get back on the right path and not let the shadows of a foolish past creep into the present so that we can have a better future.