The Choice is Yours

John 15:16 "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name he may give you."

Life is about choices. Every aspect of our life is based upon the choices we make. We choose our friends, colleges, careers, and so on. The overall point here is that we get to choose how we live our lives (to a certain extent). It may seem like every decision we've made was our own including when we dedicated our lives to Christ. Well, I've got news for you, it wasn't! Every decision you made prior to heading to the alter to dedicate your life to Christ was orchestrated by God. You didn't choose God, God chose you and for that you should be grateful because He could have chosen anyone. True, you may have made some decisions that took you on an alternate route, but God still made sure you got to that place where He could reveal Himself to you along with the purpose He placed within you when He created you. It was through His grace and mercy that the choices you made prior to surrendering to Him didn't take you out. And the reason they didn't take you out is because God's plans are greater than your plans and until you finish the work that He has set out for you that same grace and mercy will keep you.

As many of you all know I live in Houston, TX where we have experienced an unpredictable amount of rain that has caused flooding throughout the inner city as well as some of the main highways claiming the lives of 4 and some others missing. Many of you may also know Houston, TX is the home of the Houston Rockets NBA team that is currently in the Western Conference Finals alongside the Golden State Warriors. Sunday afternoon I petitioned my dear friend to go somewhere to watch the game. I looked at the start time of the game and retracted the thought because it was too late for a work night, she agreed and we both stayed home to watch the game. It was only by God's grace that we both decided to stay home because it was during the game that the bad weather took place leaving many stranded on flooded highways. That could have been us, but our ability to hear and be obedient to God's voice activated God's grace the kept us safe during the storm.

Obedience was the topic for yesterday's Use Your Words #30DaySpeakLifeChallenge (if you're not following this definitely do so) which led me to this blog today. We have to make sure that the choices we make are allowing us to be obedient to God's will and direction for our lives. Obedience is our key to living an abundant life in Christ. It unlocks grace, mercy, the ability to forgive, the ability to love, the ability to lead, the ability to follow, and so much more. In High School my principal would end the morning announcements by saying "May the challenges you face today be faced with success. If not, do not give up do not EVER give up. Make it a great day or not the choice is yours." Although God plays a role in our lives we are still the deciding factor on the lives we live by the choices we make. It can be tempting to take the easy route because of the fears of the unknown, but remember Who chose you and know that you can trust Him to provide for you throughout your entire journey.

#FearlessFAITH #ChooseWisely      

Call Me...Nameless

Call me nameless. I don't need recognition, but when I put in much work it is often desired. You know a kudos or an accolade to be announced on my behalf. Nothing wrong with that, right? Thanking people for what they do is to be expected isn't it? I have worked vigorously in the vineyard and what do they do to show their appreciation? A card. A card with no money! Okay, I left out the card part earlier. I did get a thank you, but I wanted something larger. Where are the balloons? Where is my parade? I mean, I am the ONLY one who can do my job this well. Without me this ministry would go to pieces. I'm the glue! So, where is my gigantic thank you?

Call me nameless. Remember when I said I don't need recognition? Clearly at the time I was lying. It was the "humble" thing to say. However, inwardly I wasn't so humble. God showed me the error of my ways. I wanted to be worshipped not appreciation. People were appreciative, but it wasn't good enough. Did you hear me running my mouth? The nerve to even think I am the only one who can be used by God. He sure told me! Here I am asking for a greater reward when He reminds me there is no greater reward than Heaven. My deeds may be nothing to others, but to God they are everything. Just the simple things(as long as they are pure) are being accounted for in Heaven. So I had a change of heart. Seriously, call me nameless because I'm not working for outward show or public gratification. I work so that His Works in me will touch another soul, true ministry.

#CallMeNameless #FF #TrueMinistry

Get in Tune

1 John 4:14 "And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us"

Have you ever prayed for something time and time again for an extended period of time only for it to go unanswered time and time again?  Perhaps your prayers haven't been answered because your antenna isn't aligned "just right" which interferes with your ability to be in tune with God's will for your life. When you are in tune with God your prayers will line up with His purpose for your life. You can pray for something all day long but if it's not in His will for you your prayers will be in vain.  I can remember when I was younger trying to win prizes from the radio station. It was imperative that the antenna was just right in order to pick up the station clearly to get the directions for the contest. Some of the contests required you to listen for a certain song then be the 9th caller or whatever the chosen number was for the day. Others required you to listen to a countdown then call in to list the songs in the order in which they were played for the prize. Either way each contest required you to listen before taking action and if you repeated what you heard correctly then you received the prize. If you missed any part of the countdown you didn't win the prize and most times you couldn't even get through the line. So don't doubt God when your prayers are unanswered instead realign yourself to get in tune with Him so that when it's your turn to list what He has told you you can do so in the way He intended in order for you to claim your prize.

Somewhere along the way we've gotten the idea that we shape the lives that we live and that God is to adjust accordingly which is far from the truth. God is in control whether you allow Him to be or not, you do not call the shots He does! His ways have to become your ways and not vice versa. We can't ask Him for anything that He hasn't already planned to provide for us, our plans have to be aligned and in tune with His plans. Listen carefully so that you don't miss anything. He knows your purpose He's waiting on you to tune in so that you can hear it clearly. Your first prayer should be for Him to enter in and take over your life so that you may see Him in all situations allowing you to think and act more like Him. Get in touch with Him, unlike the radio station the line is never busy and He will always listen.

#FearlessFAITH #FreedomFriday    

Picture This(May'15)

Picture this, you live your whole life hearing about how great someone is amongst different people. Some of your family members know this man and you say, "I'll meet him one day." You go to school and this same man is brought up amongst your peers. Thinking to yourself, you wonder is this dude really that great? Now, you are at church. Everything is great, but wait. There goes sister Sally again bringing up the same man. At this point it is getting ridiculous. At home you hear about him. You go to school and you hear about him. Now church? But it increases in your adulthood, even in your workplace a coworker talks about the same man. This man's name even utters out of the mouths of people who don't even know him. Weird, huh? So you think how is he this popular even with people that don't know him? Why does he keep coming up? Why do I sometimes think about him and don't know him? Nevertheless, you still continue to brush it off.

Uh oh. There has been a terrible accident. Someone hits your car and suddenly, you die. You finally meet the man people have been raving about, Jesus. He then tells you of all the opportunities He gave you to personally get to know Him. Jesus reminds you of your grandmother, who shared her faith with you while you denied afterwards. You said, "that was for old people." Then you go to school and realize some of your peers know Me too and you denied again. You said, "you were too cool for Me." So you attend church and watch others in shock when praising Me wondering, "Does it take all of that?" Life progresses on for you and you land a career after school. Your coworker shares The Gospel with you and you reply, "Not in the workplace." Out of all the testimonies you heard and everything I've done for you, why didn't you love Me back? I was on your mind for a reason, but you never responded. I kept calling, waiting, praying, and you never accepted Me. I died for you. I love you, but to enter into these Gates, you must love Me back.

Is this you? Are you rejecting God? Are you making excuses? Do you love Him back? It is clear that God loves us no matter what is going on in the world, His Love never changed. However, have we changed? Are we so caught up in our own desires that we neglect His? Can you picture it? I can! So, God wants to know, do you love Me?

#FF #PictureThis #DoYouLoveMe 

Fighting Temptation

1 Corinthians 10:13 "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."

It's Wednesday!!! Also known as "Hump Day" getting over that hump is arguably the toughest part of any week. At this point during the week you've probably been tempted in more ways than one that is outside of the will of God. Whether it be snap at a co-worker or backslide in some other way you've been faced with something. Perhaps your temptation has been tugging at you all month and you haven't been able to over come it. Don't be discouraged because temptation has played a role in the lives of man since Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden. None of us are exempt from facing temptation in our everyday lives even Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was faced with temptation during his life here on earth. Unlike like Jesus we're more than likely to fall into temptation in some way at some point despite our ability to overcome it through our faith and trust in God.

I know it may seem like your situation is unique to you and no one else has ever had to deal with it or face it, but you're wrong! The scripture above proves it by stating that what you're dealing with is not uncommon; therefore, you shouldn't treat it as though it is. God has provided us with the strength that we need to endure every level of temptation and you have access to it within your relationship with God. Although many of the obstacles that we face are physical your ability to defeat it starts with your mentality. If you believe that you can, you will. If you believe that you can't, you won't. Although we've already won the war we have to finish the fight!

#FearlessFAITH #FightTemptation #YouWon 

Your Plan vs. God's Plan

Isaiah 55: 8-7 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways" declares the Lord."As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts your thoughts."

The quote above states that God has a plan for your life and the enemy also has a plan for life, but what it fails to mention is that you also have a plan for your life that may be completely different from both, the enemy and God. That makes two people you have to battle and defeat before you embrace the plan that God has for you. However, the tougher of the battles is the battle against yourself. We often times think we know what is absolute best for our lives when we actually have no clue at all. Quite honestly we can be our own greatest hindrance by continually trying to control every aspect of our lives and being our own worst critic. How can we expect someone else to believe in us when we don't believe in ourselves? We do this unknowingly because we are operating in the physical state of mind more so than the spiritual state of mind. In the physical state of mind we can only understand what it is that we see; however, in the spiritual state of mind faith is the only thing that is needed. We will never fully understand God because He is thinking is light years ahead of the capabilities of our though process. But do know this, you nor anyone else can out-think God. Everything that He has planned for you will come to pass no matter how many people try to get in the way (including you). The best thing for us is to embrace all that God has to offer for our lives confidently knowing that His way is always better than our way. Although the fight has been fixed and you've claimed victory you still have to keep fighting all the way through giving reverence to God no matter where you stand currently on the battlefield.

#FearlessFAITH   

Know Your Role

Romans 12: 6-8 "We have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; it is to show mercy; do it cheerfully."

When you get where you're going, where will you be? Do you even know where you're going? Those are questions that many of us may not know the answer to, but those are also questions that we should consider thinking about. We are all in fact individual parts of the body of Christ whose function is dependent upon us knowing our role and sticking to it. Think about the function of your physical body, each part has its own function. What if your feet started trying to function as your hands and your hands tried to function as feet? That would be very awkward and it would definitely alter the progress of accomplishing daily tasks. Just as our body parts have roles in the overall function or our body each of us has a role in the body of Christ. True, each of us have various roles that we play in our daily lives (at work, in our relationships, friendships, and kin-ships), but I'm talking about our main role. The one that God wrote especially for each of us! Think about it...Mary's purpose what to birth the Son of God which gave her the role as Jesus' mother. She not once stepped outside of that role interfering with God's plan for Jesus as much as her flesh wanted to shield her Son from being beaten. Her husband Joseph played the role of being Jesus' earthly "father" and after Jesus was born not much else was mentioned about him as had played his role. It was them staying in character according to the Kingdom that allowed the prophesy of Jesus Christ to be fully fulfilled.

Knowing your role/purpose and living it out is the key to a life of abundance and fulfillment in Christ. However, not knowing the entire answer is okay. In fact, many of us are on a road to nowhere because we simply don't know our purpose thus we are wandering in the wilderness waiting to be found and carried there. Don't be discouraged because it's okay to wander for a little while as long as you're continuously listening to for God's voice for guidance. God's voice is essentially our spiritual GPS guiding us to every turn and recalculating when we make a wrong turn or a road is closed due to construction and even still we'll get to our destination ON TIME. We have to be careful to stay in our own lane's not focusing on those around us but instead focusing on what is in front of us and that's God leading the way. Do what it is that God told YOU to do, go where He told YOU to go, say what He told YOU to say and nothing else matters. Surrender to God and He will bring you out of the wilderness. James 4:7-8 says to resist the devil and he will flee from you, so resist the devil and surrender to God. When you surrender to God you accept the role that He has given for you in the body of Christ which means you are relieved from the role the world has given you and all the expectations that come along with it. Just be you. After all you are who this role was created for! Don't ever think that you are not equipped for the role that God has assigned for you in His kingdom.

#KnowYourRole #StayInYourLane #FearlessFAITH