Mothers, we are formed in their bodies, they feed us, diaper us, love us and nurture us. They dry our tears and relieve all our fears. They chase the boogey men away. Spend sleepless nights by our bedside when we are sick.
Their love and patience pour over us as we spend hours crying through all the heartaches of puppy love and the growing pains that only a mother’s comfort can see us through. My own mother always had an awesome ability that allowed her even in the worst possible circumstance to see so beyond the crisis at hand and see a better time in the future. And I have truly been through a thing or two, including having to file for a restraining order at the ripe old age of eighteen and my mother always reassured me of several things.
#1. Things always look brighter after a good night sleep. We often worry about bad things that never actually happen.
#2. No matter how bad that day may seem, one day we really do look back and whatever it was that almost broke us will seem like a nightmare that never really even happened.
#3. An old, old one which is true and will always be true, whatever doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.
You know she was right on all counts, and she still is!
I always thought if I could even be “half the woman” that she is I would do well. She is beautiful inside and out and has such a dignity and grace about her that is almost regal and loves Jesus more than life itself.
Mothers are like beautiful jewels, they come in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes. Each one exquisitely crafted by the master’s hand.
Maybe your birth mother or maybe the mother God chose just for you by joining you together through adoption.
Maybe He chose your grandmother or Aunt as the defining maternal hand to guide you, love you, teach you, and above all nurture you in Him.
Nevertheless, we all know there is no one, no one like our mother.
The relationship between Mary and Jesus is such a beautiful example of this one-of-a-kind bond. We know the story, Mary the blessed virgin, to whom an angel came to proclaim that she would give birth to the Son of the Almighty God, who had in fact created her.
Without a doubt she was scared to death, how do you conceive without a mate? An answer which came when she was overshadowed by the Holy Ghost.
How do you knowingly carry the Son of God inside your body?
How do you tell your future husband and your family that this is true, and it really happened to you? How do you travel ninety miles on a donkey and give birth in a stable surrounded by his beautiful animal creations knowing this child is the one to save all of creation?
How do you accept the gifts of frankincense, gold, and myrrh brought from faraway lands by wise men on bended knee who have been led there by a star to pay honor and tribute to the King of all Kings?
How do react when the shepherds come to worship him, relaying that the message of his arrival had been proclaimed to them by the host of heaven who proceeded to sing praises to the glory of God in the Highest as heaven came down and kissed earth?
How do you give the offering of the poorest of poor when dedicating him, never, ever worrying about providing for him?
How do you hear a prophecy from one who had been promised he would not see death until he beheld the face of this promised child, when that prophecy is that “a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also”?
As this child grows and maternal instincts take over, as he is held, loved, learns to crawl, walk and says his first words, has his first bumps and bruises and one day decides to stay behind and talk with the elders rather than join the caravan his family traveled with.
How do you understand, when you ask why he did this and he asks you “Did you not know I must be about my Father’s business?”,
I will tell you how, he was her baby, even though he was divine, she knew he was God’s Son, but she was human, and she was his mother and like all of us, that was her baby and as she watched him grow, he became what he was…her son whom she loved more than life itself.
Fast forward twenty-one years after pondering what did he mean by this, as he begins his ministry and watching his miracles (she had to know he held this power because she asked him to do something for her friends at the wedding when he turned the water into wine, which was his first public display of this power) she watched as her own people hated him and threatened his life, she watched as his ministry grew.
She knew of his arrest and public torture and finally seeing him bloody, beaten beyond recognition and carrying a wooden beam to his execution, his battered body falling under the weight of it. And unable to go to him, to hold him, to touch his face, to tell him everything would be okay and this was still her baby and there was nothing in the universe she could do to stop it because it was the piercing of her soul. There would be no words to describe her sorrow.
How could her beautiful son who hung nailed to a cross, nearing death look down and want to be sure his mother would be cared for before dying, because he was her firstborn son.
John 19:25-27 “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.
When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, (John) he saith unto his mother Woman, behold thy son!
Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.”
They seriously wrote the book, the ultimate story of love between a mother and child, and a wonderful example to us about the love and respect we should have for own mothers.
I hope all have a blessed Mother’s Day and if you have lost your Mother, rejoice in knowing just as Jesus and Mary we reunited and are together forever and ever, you will be also. And if you know a lady who maybe has lost her children or they are “too busy” for her, please, please consider “adopting” her for Mother’s Day.
A card, flowers or just a visit can change her world. Because loneliness is one “disease” we can cure!
Remember Jesus said if you do it for one of his little one’s (saints) you’ve done it for him! Because He is the King and these ladies are precious, precious jewels that help make up his Majestic crown! They are precious to him! Φλογίζω 2014 Revised 2019 & 2020/ May 08, 2022,& 05/13/2023
*Post Note: My beautiful mother mentioned above has since went home to be with Jesus, I was blessed beyond words to be her child.
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
“Then the eleven disciples went way into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.And when they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to all things whatsoever I have commanded you;
And, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. A-men,” Matthew 28:16-20
I am sure that you are very familiar with those verses, and I have used them many times myself over the years.
And when my thoughts for this post were hitting, I had actually thought about a television commercial. And I know how strange that may sound, and it wasn’t about the product or service offered, it was about the support.
A trainer is encouraging a person by telling her “I got you” and that has always just reminded me of how Jesus encourages us, that when storms that we had expected to cease somehow still swirl all around us and the battles that we have entered into full of hope, faith, and determination assured that victory will come and we can find ourselves doubting, questioning as that battle seems to go on endlessly in an exhausting dead heat.
We often wonder and question, much like the disciples that found themselves doubting, just like Thomas when he had doubted that Jesus rose from the dead. And they found themselves in the place that he had destined them to be, the place they were told to go.
That is the deal with the doubt and uncertainty that comes at us when life goes upside down, the first thought the enemy brings to us is, “IF”, IF you were where you should be with the Lord, none of this would be happening.”
Has that ever gone through your mind?
I am sure, if we would be honest, this has gone through many minds. Because that is how the enemy uses doubt and it is one of his more powerful weapons, and that is how you have to view, nothing more, nothing less.
As I have “preached” many times in this little blog, reiterating Romans 8:38,39 NO ONE and NOTHING can ever separate us from God so the enemy uses doubt to cause us to separate ourselves from God through the false belief that somehow, we are out of his will when nothing in our lives feels like it could possibly be his will.
It causes us to THINK…RETHINK… and finally OVERTHINK everything that we have been taught about the Word of God and about God and make us completely question our relationship with him. So, don’t!
Try out a new weapon of your own. Change your battleplan.
Jesus promised us many things but it ultimately up us to believe those promises and sometimes we have to look at things differently, because how we view a situation, or an expected outcome is not always how he views it and when those things go a way not of our choosing NEVER means that he does not love and NEVER means that he has suddenly changed his mind and DECIDED to go against his own word and forsake us.
He will NEVER do that.
And once we understand that we can see truly step back away from our battles and see the truth that we can’t fight life and we certainly cannot fight death, but we can have peace in knowing that he is the ONLY one who holds our tomorrow and the only reason we can get through today.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.
For as the rain cometh down, and snow from heaven, and returneth not thither (it does not go back up), but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return to me void (empty, without fruit) but it shall ACCOPMLISH that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I send it. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace…” Isaiah 55:8-11a
Trust him, remember his promises and don’t let doubt steal that joy, joy that you need, joy that is your strength, the joy OF the Lord, joy not in this world but the joy in knowing that the God of the universe loves you!
He’s “got” you and he is NEVER going to let you go and know that it is in that joy in him, joy in soul, not to be confused with being joyous in this world, it is hard to be cheerful when your heart is broken, so no, it is not cheerful joy, it is the joy in salvation and the promise of eternity.
And that is the joy that will bring you out of the wilderness and lead you forth out of that battle in his peace.
“RESTORE unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free (generous) spirit.” Psalm 51:12
For something to be restored it had to have already be possessed, And when we start our journey with Jesus we are full of that joy, the joy that comes with the realization that his grace and mercy had spared our through our days of darkness and sin.
Then as we mature in him and life comes as life does we find ourselves in that doubt… forgetting that joy.
He never changes, he accepts and loves us just as much as he did the day we accepted his salvation, the change lies within us. that why he tells us of his thoughts and our thoughts, and I have been very guilty of this myself, we have our thoughts of what should happen on earth but he gave us promises NOT of this earth and our true hope and salvation are not of this earth.
Being human, we want all the promises fulfilled here (and some are) but our hope is supposed to rest in the ETERNAL outcome. And that is your joy, that is your hope, that EVERY single morning while you are in this world, on this earth, HIS mercy is renewed every single morning and His mercy endures FOREVER. NOTHING will ever change that, nothing.
Get in your prayer closet and spend time with him in the Holy Ghost, let heaven bless earth.
Remember those words that will NEVER return to him unfruitful… I AM WITH YOU ALWAY…
And He’s got ya! He did not create you, love you, so that he could then just suddenly decide to you out to the wolves! Jesus does not work that way!
Have a blessed week! Love and peace till next time… Praying it’ll be a blessing to you TODAY!!
Rev. Nina Brown Johnson / phlogizo360 2019 *REVISITED 07/20/2021, Φλογιζω NBJ/2021 AND***REVISTED 09/02/2022***
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
“But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, TOSSED with waves: for the WIND was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night (the blackest, darkest hour) JESUS WENT UNTO THEM, WALKING ON THE SEA.” And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they CRIED OUT FOR (because of) FEAR. But STRAIGHTWAY (Immediately) JESUS SPAKE unto them, saying,BE OF GOOD CHEER(have courage) IT IS I ( I AM ); BE NOT AFRAID.” Matthew 14:25-27 Through the journey of this life many times we find that we are that ship, the waves crashing and tossing us about, unable to catch balance tossed with that horrible great wind that is blowing down on us in the worst possible hour. The fourth watch, when we have been tossed by the raging waves of trails of life and circumstances that we have no control over. Trails and troubles that comes just as a part of this life for us and for all others. But when you add that horrid wind, that cold, fierce blowing of the fury of the enemy, because he loves to kick you when your down and it is always during last stretch of the night. He thinks of it as this, you are already weak, tired, and completely exhausted, just worn out from the hours you have already battled through the dark and he knows if he can get you to lose focus that this night is never going to end, he will destroy your faith in God. Notice Jesus came in that hour, Jesus knew where they were, he knew what they were battling and he knew at what point they would break IF he did not step in. Being in an exhaustive state it is hard to see whose hand is whose and this was Jesus coming to their rescue but they were so mentally drained that they were afraid that he too was more trouble headed their way. When they cried out (as we cry out to Him) it was then that he said IT IS I, and encouraged their faith. Peter was so distraught, he needed reassurance, just as we too sometimes need to know that He is aware of what we are going through, that He really is there, and that He really is going to take us through the night. “And Peter answered and him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me to come to thee on the water. And he said, Come, And when Peter was down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. BUT when he SAW THE WIND boisterous (violent) HE WAS AFRAID, he cried, saying Lord, SAVE ME.” Matthew 14:28-30 Jesus had given him that reassurance that he was aware and was completely on the scene, and at the comforting voice of his Lord he began to walk on those horrible waves that had held him as their terrorized prisoner only moments earlier. In life, we sometimes feel like we can’t catch a break. We think we see the shimmer of the morning starting to break through and then the darkness only returns with even more blackness and wind howling. We feel like as soon as things are finally looking up something happens and it all crashes in on us. “And IMMEDIATELY JESUS STRETCHED FORTH HIS HAND, AND CAUGHT HIM, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, Wherefore didst thou ( why did you) doubt? And when they were come into the ship, THE WIND CEASED.” Matthew 14:28-30 So many troubled waters, waves of sickness, waves of financial woes, waves of worry about our children and their futures, waves of family issues, the winds of past hurts and unresolved heartaches and the stone cold blow of lack of closure to doors of the past. It all rocks, it tosses, and that wind will blow. But Jesus came through in that darkest most tempestuous hour, even though they thought they couldn’t make it, HE KNEW when they couldn’t and by allowing Peter to walk on those waves, he was really showing him something. People are so mean about Peter, they are always pointing out the fact that he temporarily slipped, but how many of them have ever been in Peter’s sandals? We can look at others and think well, this or that, but until we have truly, truly been in their shoes we don’t know how we would react, but Jesus does and he knows what we can handle has nothing to do with what we FEEL like we can handle. Storms to weather, giants to fight, crosses to bear, and no one likes it. I have yet to meet a Christian who jumps up in Church and shouts “Woo, hoo bring on the storm!” I have fought some hellacious giants, there are battles that I am not sure that I will win in this earth but I know if I hold on and keep the faith, that even if it is at the feet of the Lord in New Jerusalem that the battle will have been won. There have been times when warnings to church has come that storms were brewing and I’d be like, please, please no, no more storms. We all go through it and some are worse than others and there is always someone else whose storm makes ours look like a sunny morn. I never will forget the testimony of a certain preacher, I love to hear him, he straight shoots, preaches hell, fire, brimstone, mingled with love and compassion and all with a comedic edge that can make you dig where he is coming from without making you want to hide under the pew. He often made remarks about his childhood that confused me, because his Mom is an awesome woman and I couldn’t figure out how all this happened to him. One night he told us what God had brought him from, he had been born to stoned parents who had a house full of kids, and kept having kids, he told us about watching his baby sibling die, believing the baby may have frozen to death because there was a hole in the ceiling with snow actually falling in, and he kept a crew cut all the time and had a very visible scar on his head, he went on to tell us that he received that after opening a can of food without permission and being hit with the still attached to the can, jagged top. When he and his siblings rescue came, he was eleven and his Mom later told me that he was barely dressed and wearing a ladies top. And to know him now and to know that God stepped in and changed this child’s life and fulfilled HIS PURPOSE for him, placing him with a good family that would teach him of a God that loved him despite what that horrible storm he had lived in for eleven years had tried to convince him of. Don’t try to wait out the storm to pursue the things of God for your life. The young man who asked Jesus if he could “bury his father” before following him was answered by “Let the dead bury their dead; but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.” It will not always easy, but sometimes we have to stop fighting with things that are dead, and trying to change things that will never be changed, and accept them as such, and go on in our walk with the Lord. Sometimes we have to take what we have and work with it, even if we think we are lacking what we “need” to get the job done. In the story of Elisha, we are introduced to him as he is plowing a field having only eleven oxen, now we know that can’t be done and that is why we are told that HE HIMSELF IS THE TWELFTH OXEN! Field needed plowed, he needed an ox, so he did what had to be done. He could have said well, whenever we get another ox, I’ll take care of that field, but he didn’t. So the giant you face is monstrous, the cross is growing might heavy, and that wind is threatening to smash your ship to smithereens, BUTJESUS IS RIGHT THERE. He will slay that giant, He will give you His strength to make that cross lighter to bear, and He will lead you BACK TO SAFETY AND THAT STORM WILL CEASE. Morning will come breaking through and at the end of it all, that little ship will be stronger, having weathered that dreaded storm, it will now be a proven sea worthy vessel, those giants won’t look quite so tall when you know the hand that is stretching out to catch you is the hand that controls it all. Just so someone out there will know, this is NOT what I had planned for today, and He showed me things in this I had never noticed and I feel his presence with it, I will never pretend to know your pain or tell you life will be great, but one day the storm will pass and maybe sooner than you know! I want to leave you with this, quote it, memorize and keep it to your heart: Psalm 56:3 : “WHAT TIME I AM AFRAID, I WILL TRUST IN THEE.” May God bless you and keep you, in Jesus’ name. Amen. Φλογιζω/ all rights reserved. NBJ/2015 **REVISTED 08/24/20222**
Awesome song, hope it will encourage you Shared from YouTube
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
“And ye shall hear of wars, and rumours of war:…” Matthew 24:6 (a) What can we possibly say now? Jesus warned us long long ago of all that would one daycome to pass and we know wars have been raging since mankind has been confined to this realm of the earth.
So even though it may not seem like anything new, believe me, it is more than worth giving serious thought and attention to. And we will get into scriptures of why in a bit.
The attack on Ukraine has been heart wrenching and the most disturbing truth to be told is the reality of the worlds eyes being awakened, finally seeing the insurmountable ruthlessness of the heart that beats inside the chest of Vladimir Putin. The adjectives I most wanted to use, have already been used and it is hard to even describe what is hard to define.
This came as a shock only to those who have not paid attention to the world around us and those who have listened and watched saw this coming long ago and fear what else may come and will come.
All that we are witnessing is prophecy unfolding and what truly terrifies me, as I have expressed in many a post, is that while we are busy fighting each other, and protesting everything, and accusing one another, constantly bickering and displaying to the whole world the division among our own people, that we forget that we do still have those who would like nothing more than to destroy us, and not only us, but any who stand for the truth of freedom.
The biggest mistake that a nation can ever make is to forget that freedom is a gift, and that freedom must be guarded, protected, and cherished.
I want to give a passage as a comparison of what happens when the “frienmie” is welcomed into the camp and all the “treasures” are laid bare for them to see.
“At that time Berudachbaladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah because he had heard that he had been sick. And Hezekiah hearkened unto them, and shewed them all the things of his house of the precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all his house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures; there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not.
Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto hm, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country, even from Babylon.
And he said, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All the things that are in mine house have they seen: There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed them.
And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord. Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried away into Babylon: and nothing shall be left, saith the Lord.” 2 Kings 20:12-16
Before we get into this, I do want to note something, Hezekiah had in fact been dying and had been told to get “his house in order” and you read that by just going up a few verses on your own and in Isaiah chapter twenty-eight, he sought the Lord and the Lord had extended his life by fifteen years, but it is a true lesson in never questioning the Lord, because even though it seemed good that he lived, much heartache came as a result of that extension, including the visit by the Babylonians above.
At the feigned compassion of his unknown enemy, he forgot that there were still those who would like to rob his treasures and take over his country, and in forgetting that he showed them everything, everything right down to the armour, so they knew exactly what they would be dealing with before they attacked and they knew exactly what and where to locate every treasure they wished for their own.
Sounds so familiar, I cringe listening to news reports, when I hear what the game plan is and I hear, “No, we are not sending in military.” Do we really have to be that transparent? Shouldn’t we keep some plans secret? What army would fear a battle with a country that they knew in advance would not fight back?
We have shown all our treasures, we have shown our ‘detest” for our own people in the ways that we treat one another and we have shown the world all they need to see about our stability and it is horrifying
And as we know that scripture is in reference to original Babylon, check out this one concerning spiritual Babylon., as much of the book of Jeremiah is double prophecy, meaning it was for that day and also as a future fulfillment.
This passage refers to the “mingled people” this one is a no brainer when you think of a country that is comprised of people from all ethnic groups, becoming a new people, I myself descend from five ancestral groups.
Americans are about as mingled as it can get and there is no definitive term or country assigned Biblically to us, which is also one of the ways we determine “who” we are in scripture.
We are the “mingled” people and we are the end time Mystery the Great. I want to give you just a few verses concerning judgments, that is what the sword represents and it will show clearly just how weakened the state of that nation will be in the end.
“A sword is upon the liars (soothsayers, psychics): and they shall dote;
A sword is upon her mighty men; and they shall be dismayed. A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled (mixed) people that are in the midst of her:
And they shall become as women: a sword is upon her treasures; and they shall be robbed.
A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon (insane with) their idols.” Jeremiah 50:36-38
Hopefully, Lord will, we’ll go through the entire chapter there in a post soon, but for now, I’d ask that you notice how the country was weakened and at the moment that is how the rest of the world sees us because we have trusted in our strength as a nation and turned from God in the worse possible way, and even though there are many who still follow Christ, it is the leadership that we have allowed that have an will bring those judgments.
Back to Putin, the only way he is going to stop is divine intervention by a God that he does not even believe in, which God stopped Pharaoh and I still believe in the power of prayer. He has been totally underestimated, and his relationship with China and the true destruction that could come, Pharaoh is a good comparison to what the world is dealing with concerning him and his agenda. The Biblical kings of the East, the old adage “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” work together, and the secretly plot against the other until only one is left standing.
So we all pray and pray, without ceasing for Ukraine, for the people, they are a true inspiration, they are brave, they are strong in the face of absolute terror.
And we should pray as if it were us in their shoes, because it very well could be one day. How would we respond, our lives ripped apart, driven from our homes and everything we know as a hellish force rains down on us?
We all need to wake up and America needs to grow up, while we still stand. It is always someone else problem until that problem decides to make itself our problem too, and complacency is a luxury no one can afford.
The concept of having peaceable resolution will not always be an option, this is just a bit concerning the one to come at the end, what I want you to notice is that is is all about the force and conquest there is no human ability to stop this final endtime assault and the war that will be waged that will lead to the battle of Armageddon and the ultimate fulfillment of Christ defeating the antichrist and the forces of darkness and taking his reign over earth.
“And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous (unusual) things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
Neither shall he regard the God (gods) of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall magnify himself above all. But in his estate (their place) shall he honour the god of forces (a god of fortresses); a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones,and pleasant things.
Thus shall he do in the most strong holds (against the strongest fortresses’) with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and cause to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain (profit).” Daniel 11:36-39
Chilling isn’t it? He worships something unlike anything anyone has seen, of course he gets his power from Satan, but it is good to know what’s coming, mention of which, stay vigilant, just as Jesus told us to watch, be ready for his return and be ready for worse case scenarios and most importantly, again prayer, prayer,, and more prayer.
It is my sincerest prayer for the people of Ukraine and those who are also suffering persecutions the world over today that the Lord will intervene in a powerful way and that His face will shine sending back the forces of hell on earth.
For their protection:
Psalm 91:1-4: ” He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, anf from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust (take refuge) his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.”
For their escape:
Psalm 124:6-8: ” Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.
Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we are escaped.
Because our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
For divine intervention and deliverance:
Isaiah 12:5,6: “For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise,saith the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.”
In the name above every other name, Jesus. Amen.
Φλογιζω NBJ 2022/ Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
“The wilderness and the solitary (desert) place shall be glad for them: and the desert shall blossom as the rose.
It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and signing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.
Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm (make firm) the feeble knees. Say unto them that are of a fearful heart (are afraid), Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then the lame man shall leap as a hart (a deer), and the tongue of the dumb (mute) shall sing; for in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desert.
And the parched ground shall become a pool and thirsty land springs of water; in the habitation of dragons (jackals),where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
And an highway shall be there, and a way (road),And it shall be called The way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it: but is shall be for those; the wayfaring men (those who walk the road), though fools, shall not err therein (will not go astray).
No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed of the Lord shall walk there.
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Isaiah 35
Well to get started, Happy leap day, Happy leap year, Happy Sadie Hawkins Day! That is a lot for a day that only comes every four years!
It is cold and snowy in my part of the world, looked quite like a post card this morning, absolutely gorgeous with snow covering every branch of every tree and glittering down sparkling as the sun tried to shine through.
And it is a beautiful refreshing change from this time yesterday, as I was feeling a little ” Bob crackit-ish” having just came out of a nineteen-hour power outage caused by a fallen tree…ah the joys of electric heat.
And things can and do change fast sometimes, like the old saying, “What a difference a day can make.”
Like our passage above, I know that seemed excessive, an entire chapter, but it is needed. God often works in our lives the same way, one day is catastrophic, your entire world crashing around you, such as in the first verse, a spiritual wilderness, a barren deserted land in which you feel that you have found yourself helplessness alone.
Then Jesus comes in and lets us know that He is already there, He is in that place with you and for you, and in those places of solitude is the very place that God often uses to bring that gladness and joy of his presence to us.
This is why the desert can be “glad” for us, and why it can be a place, starting out with feelings of lonely abandonment and quickly becoming a beautiful, fruited land in where find a renewing and strengthening of your personal relationship with God.
A place in which you learn complete trust and complete surrender while gaining faith and complete confidence in his power over your life and the blessed knowledge that he is doing something wonderful in you despite what everything around you may be saying to the contrary.
And the blooming of that rose, a rose not only blooming but blossoming into perfection out of the parched dry ground.
A rose that would seem doomed to never in bud given the hardness of the soil in which it is planted but once those sweet waters come bringing the glory and joy of the land over that land, everything will change.
Wasn’t it Shakespeare’s famous line that told even by any name a rose would smell just as sweet?
Ah, but I do beg to differ…
“I AM the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As my lily among the thorns, so is my love among the daughters.” Song of Solomon 2:1,2
And talk about beautiful fragrances…
“Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness; therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows (more than any other), All thy garments smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia…” Psalm 45: 7, 8 (a)
No name greater, no fragrance sweeter than our God, the only true rose, the only rose whose love does bloom in us, even in the middle of a desert and who is the lily producing a beautiful, sweet fragrance covering and replacing the smell of the awful ash left by what had once consumed our life.
That sweet aroma of that lily, whose beauty shines forth even from among the painful thorns as we go through the valleys of this world, as all the “dragons”, all that would hurt and hinder are made silent and renewing, as that fresh grass growing starts to take place.
So, you see, you can’t stop, you cannot give up, because where you are today can change in twinkling of an eye. The place of the desert that you may feel will engulf you may very well be the place you look back on one day with a higher knowledge and understanding that if it had not been for that desert, you may have never be given the only truly perfect rose.
“Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour (aroma).” Ephesians 5:1,2
Nothing, absolutely nothing that can be sweeter or any rose more beautiful than Jesus.
Trust him, just TRUST him.
Φλογιζω NBJ 2020/ Rev. Nina Brown Johnson REVISTED 02/15/2022
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
“Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death.” Mark 13:12
“For the son dishounerth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law: A man’s enemies are the men born of his own house (a person’s own family)” Micah 7:6
“A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” Proverbs 17:17
Fair to say these are some serious warnings of ye olde family unit making frequent appearances at The Drama Ville Dinner Theater.
Recorded in the Bible it started at the beginning, Genesis chapter 4, and it started with Cain the firstborn of Adam and Eve and of course the older brother to Abel.
Cain became jealous and angry because God accepted Abel’s offering but not his, Cain had offered what he wanted to offer not what was acceptable as an offering, instead of heeding God’s warning to him, he let his anger simmer and steep until it hit the boiling point.
Genesis 4:8 ” And Cain talked with Able his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in a field, that Cain rose up against Able and slew him.”
He talked him into going into the field with him, with the intention of killing him the entire time. Again leading me to believe that Able, like Joseph just did not have a clue to this secret hatred was until it was too late.
We know the story of Joseph and how he was one of two sons bore to his father Jacob by his choice wife Rachel and he was half-brother to the ten bore by Leah, the wife that he had been tricked into marrying.
Now maybe the bad blood was a direct result of that and who truly knows the effect that all the strife and hatred between these sister wives had on the ten as they grew up, who knows the discussions they may have heard and who knows if their ultimate hatred for Joseph was born out of their own feelings of inadequacy because we do know Joseph was the favorite son.
But we also know that it was because Joseph was not anything like them,he was like his mother, he was gentle and mild, it was because he was pleasant to his father.
Maybe it was just the sowing of the tares with the wheat. I really don’t think Joseph understood that his brothers seriously hated him, I believe that in his innocent thinking and his young age that he just did not get it and when he shared his dream, satan then used that to push them over the edge, he was just a teen-aged boy sharing what in his eyes was the coolest dream ever, we know that his Dad rebuked him for this because being older, wiser he knew that the others hated him.
Genesis 37:18: “And when they saw him afar off,even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.”
He did not have a clue, but after they had thrown him in a pit to drown (only there was no water in the well ) they sat around laughing and eating lunch and then changed their mind and sold him as a slave, he finally, painfully, understood.
Selling Joseph forewarned of the entire Hebrew nation being enslaved to Egypt and many today live enslaved in emotional prisons built by the hands of their family members and built on their spiritual blood The Bible really doesn’t detail Jesse thoughts toward David but we can read between the lines, he is young, writes poetry, plays music, the creative type, so he is given the job of watching over the flock.
David was not even considered by his father when Samuel called for the sons to presented and that just about said it all. And we know when push come to shove and all the men of Israel was cowering down before Goliath, Davids true character started shining through:
1 Samuel 17:26,28: “And David spake to the men who stood by him, saying, What shall be done unto the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God? And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why comest thou down hither?and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thy heart; for thou hast come down that thou mayest see the battle”
Eliab’s entire personality revealed!
The oldest ones seem to have the biggest issues, the parable of the prodigal son even has this theme, the angry older brother. Always angry because they feel they did not get the attention they deserve. He was angry because he saw something in David that he knew he did not possess in himself, courage in the face of a giant.
He wanted to line David out and “put him in his place” in front of the other men as a show of bravado, he could still tell off little brother there.
Why are you here? Why were you born? Why do you have to be here anyway?
Sounds like some of the things many ears have heard. Who is watching your few sheep, just got to prove whatever the younger has watch over is not just quite as good or meaningful.
Now he has to let everyone know what he thinks about David with accusations of pride, (remember the accuser of the brethren, one of satan’s many name’s, well he loves nothing more than to accuse you through your brethren!) and of course he had to give a reason for good show.
And I know David put up with this on a regular basis, check out his answer: 1 Samuel 17:29; ” And David said,What have I now done? (what did I do now?) Is there not a cause?”
Breakdown, Cain was angry and jealous because of Abel’s offering being accepted by Father God. his only response for his action was “Am I my brother’s keeper?” In his eyes, his little brother was not his problem and when he was called on his deed, he only cared about saving his own neck.
God was with Joseph, Joseph named his firstborn son Ephraim, meaning “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction” and giving us all hope in the fact that what is meant for harm God will use for good.
Joseph’s brother’s were angry and resentful over his relationship with their father.
But he forgave his brothers but the cosmic repercussion of it all still sent an entire race into slavery for over four hundred years.
We do see that David fared pretty well, one whom the whole group of the thought was no more than a singing pretty boy is still considered one of the most fierce warrior Kings to ever have existed and whatever became of his brother Eliab, I haven’t a clue, but David’s throne is forever established of God.
Goliath laughed at David, mocking him, mocking his size and asking did he come against him with sticks as if he were a dog, more or less, sticks were something to beat something else with, but in the giant’s eyes it was no match for him, but the stones, the stones could break him, because just as that stone guided by the hand of God himself took that giant to the ground enabling David to take off the laughing giant’s head with his own weapon, God is our rock and He always wins.
Maybe you have been or continue to go through these “family affairs”, but please hear me, just as with Cain and Joseph’s brothers, people can have far darker feelings toward us then we want to accept. It is hard to walk away from family member’s especially when subjected to the good old brainwashing like Eliab tried to use on David.
They will always blame you, they will always accuse you because Satan is the ultimate older brother, to the children of God, he was created first, we were created in God’s image, he is older than mankind and he is jealous and angry because you can have a relationship with the Father that is now lost to him forever.
Giants even bigger than Goliath can be born of these relationships,so see it for what it is. Please stay with me, next time I want to give a boatload of scripture, God’s word to help with these things and take the heads off some giants, we’ll start it with a little “Blood Transfusion”!
Φλογιζω/ NBJ 2015 Original post date: 11/12/2015
REVISITED 11/17//2021, I wanted to revisited several of these posts, as I had originally written them to address the topic dysfunctional and toxic relationships and the dread it can make of holidays approaching.I will be revisiting this series over the course of this week, but several are linked below, which link to the others in that particular series.
I do pray if you are wrestling with this dilemma that these posts will be not only a comfort, but an encouragement to you. Jesus is the Prince of Peace and peace is exactly what he wants for you, so have your joy in a relationship with him and do not allow yourself to be treated as less than the precious life that he created you to be. Φλογιζω NBJ/2021 Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
This is going to be one of those not quite so comfortable subjects that so truly needs addressed.
For some who grew up in true Christian homes of sibling love, and harmony, I salute you and I am happy for what you do not understand but for the rest and the majority we’re gonna deal with bad blood.
The questionable point when sibling rivalry and normal competitiveness between family members turns not so friendly and the blood of your truest most formidable enemy is shared through your own veins and the hatred that pierces your heart through the words the Bible refers to as “of a piercing of a sword” and they are much worse than the sword of an enemy because we unfortunately have a built-in pack need to belong, fit in and be accepted.
Even in the most together families, there is usually one or two that have issues with each other that affect the entire family.
I have seriously thought about whether this is a bigger issue for males or females, because there are stories of males bullied and pushed a little too far by abusive older brothers and yet for females with one or sometimes two misogynistic siblings the damage done can far outweigh the normal relationship with the “good” siblings and this pattern can be seen over and over, and often traced back through a complete bloody bloodline of bad blood between “brothers” for generations. It is a story almost as old as time, I think it goes back even farther than Cain and Abel, I think it goes back to the war in heaven, the rebellion of Lucifer as he took one-third of the servants of heaven with him.
His jealousy and rage and as now his accusations against the children of God, so clearly seen in the verbal abuse in domestic situations and his need to attempt to control those around him so crystal clear in the lives of those who wish to control others through this kind of abuse which can turn violent and physical at the drop of a hat.
Our biggest obstacle to overcome, the name itself, “Domestic”, what does that even mean? Tame violence? Tame belittling?
Homegrown heartache and as long as it’s not a stranger cussing you out then it is just domestic, no big deal, just deal with it. That is what it means. As Christians we are taught by Christ to love those who hate us and pray for those that use us and bless those who curse us, but I trulydo not believe that he meant for us to be the family door mat or the emotional whipping boy who hears it if the sun doesn’t shine the right way.
The Bible also teaches to “Give no place to the devil” and to resist him and he will flee from you, there are countless scriptures I give with this series as proof that we do not have to have contact with them and to stay away from violent, mean people who only want to hurt you.
Through time women have stayed with abusive husbands because they made a vow that it was forever, but again why on earth would Jesus take all those stripes, all that pain and die on that cross to save us, so we then could live life with someone of the devil that beats on us, either with fists or words? Never going to get me to buy that story!
Now, we have to deal with family, like abusive husbands only you can’t divorce them but I tell you what you can do, SEE it for what it is. When we don’t have Christ they have us locked into their game, an ongoing test of the wills to see who is “strongest” or who will bend first, it is like running with wolves, they consider tears a weakness and when your down the whole pack turns on you.
That is what Satan wants.
His objective is to poison your blood with the same poison he managed to inject into theirs, probably through the same sadistic,systematic mind games and through the endless hail of heartless words and of course it just wouldn’t work without the endless, never-ending accusation that it is really YOU! Because YOU think your better than them and all the words designed to instill guilt (that does not belong to you) and play on that lack of self-worth that has already been successfully driven into your brain and whatever else is thrown at you, he hopes to beat any gentleness,or compassion, and anything remotely decent out of you until he has YOU become exactly what your abuser is and that is his plan and that is scary.
But once we accept Jesus they want even more to destroy you because now they have no one to play with since you are a new creature and are working toward crucifying your flesh, so now the enemy has a double motive.
Trap #1. If he can get you to break and hit back and attack them out of the same pain and anger that held you in bondage before, if you are not very careful he can make you fall spiritually, if you are passive-aggressive and he can mange to get you into attack mode he can have you being the aggressor or getting so angry just wanting it to stop that you will cause more damage than can be undone.
Trap #2 The old blood is thicker than water routine and convince you that it is your job to get them saved and that if you are just nice to them and tolerate them and put up with their abuse, you will be leading them to God and if you fail to let them hang out with you wasted and treat you like dirt than you are not being very kind and if they die they will die lost and it will be YOUR FAULT! Not true! We can’t get anyone saved only Jesus can do that! We can be a light but when someone is high, belligerent, and mean, raising Hades on you, how can they see that light through their own anger? Soft answers do turn away wrath but once you give that answer turn yourself away also. Jesus did not fool with demons, he did not carry on conversations with them, he cast them out and there are times in our life that we must see these things for what they are, traps, demonic traps that the enemy is using to try to keep us in the same bondage that God delivered us from!
Jesus wants us to have peace and joy unspeakable and delivers us from all fear,and we must not allow the enemy to convince us that blood is blood and to be a “good” Christian requires us to endure these things. So please just say No to that ingrained false belief that by letting them torment you that your are somehow helping their soul and that one day they will love you, accept it for what it is and don’t fall for the traps.
Never tolerate a behavior from a family member that you would not tolerate from a stranger and just as you sure wouldn’t keep going back to the same store that the owner had just the week before called you useless hussy (of course that is a language clean up) now would you?
Next time we’ll start making Biblical sense of this, stories of what others went through and how to put our trust in God and allow him to heal us and be all that we need.
Φλογιζω NBJ.2015 Original post date: 11/10/2015 REVISITED 11/13/2021, I wanted to revisited several of these posts, as I had originally written them to address the topic dysfunctional and toxic relationships and the dread it can make of holidays approaching.I will be revisiting this series over the course of this week, but several are linked below, which link to the others in that particular series.
I do pray if you are wrestling with this dilemma that these posts will be not only a comfort, but an encouragement to you. Jesus is the Prince of Peace and peace is exactly what he wants for you, so have your joy in a relationship with him and do not allow yourself to be treated as less than the precious life that he created you to be. Φλογιζω NBJ/2021 Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
Song of Solomon 4:6: “Until the day break, and the shadows flee, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense.” Mountain climbing, some saying simply “because it is there” but that really doesn’t get it in the spirit world now does it? That verse tells us a couple of things, we are going somewhere, to the mountain of myrrh, where we will die to our flesh and shed all the excess junk we are carrying on this trip, because the higher we climb the more junk and baggage we will toss to lighten the load and make it easier to climb. The hill of frankincense, the place of effective spiritual intercession is our goal and we have determined that we will get there and we will stay there until day breaks over the spirit world and the shadows of death and hell flee away. The myrrh is a mountain and the hill is frankincense because the hardest part of dying to our own flesh and coming to the place of purification that we can stand in that place of prayer, it is NOT about being a great person or most “spiritual” it is about having a heart for God. As David said, the one thing he would seek after to inquire in the temple and worship God in the beauty of HIS holiness, (not ours) once that is accomplished the intercession isn’t quite daunting a task. It takes a determination, a very wise man once chatted with me about a very simple biblical truth, “many are called but few are chosen” many are saved and are happy right where they are and that is perfectly okay, but God is looking for those who seek more, who are aware of the needs of others and KNOW there are greater works to be done in these precious, blessed last days. They have the heart as Isaiah’s which echoes “Here am I Lord, send me” and those will be his chosen vessels to accomplish the works and bring in the harvest. There are nine spiritual gifts, and I do believe there will be people who the Lord flows these gifts through on an as needed basis. So many have chosen not to seek the gifts God has given them, but the work still has to get done and I do believe it will be by a multi-tasking army. So some may start climbing that mountain and decide it is a little too steep and the trip is just not worth it, and ask “How do we even know anything is up there anyway?” Some may have to stop on the way and reach down to help another back up and there may be times that we are carrying each other until strength returns. You have to know why you want to climb that mountain, I determined long ago that I’d climb the bloody thing or I would die on the way up, because I know my motivation, I know my prayers to the only one who holds it all in his nail scarred hands, when I just want to tell him just how much I can’t do this, how I just simply cannot go one more step, I remember, I remember he was completely stripped, beaten beyond recognition and brutally nailed to a cross and displayed for the whole world to ridicule and he did it because he had a mountain to climb, the hill of the ultimate intercession, a hill named Calvary, the intercession to save all of mankind, and the only way for him to do that was to climb that hill. Then I remember, he forever holds me, I have no strength in me, but through him I can do all things, and I ask myself what am I climbing for anyway? I climb on behalf of every child that lives in horror and abuse, I climb for every animal tortured, I climb for every victim of ethnic cleansing after seeing the hollow soul stripped eyes on CNN of the genocidal rape victims of the Taliban, I climb for every elderly person that lives at the complete mercy of others in nursing homes and privately. I climb out of my pain, the awareness that there are stripe scars on my soul so deep that they are my cross to be borne, and a very personal vendetta against hell itself, to see it brought to its knees and maybe the chance to scream a list of “things that are just not nice to do to people” at Satan when Jesus casts him and his angels into an eternal fire of hell. If you could see this mountain in the spirit world, I think you would have to compare it to stairs, the light of that place being the soft glow of lamplight and a single file journey, an ascension upward of prayers, starting with the gathering censers of incense ( prayers of the saints) and as they persist, maybe feeling like they aren’t getting anywhere at first, oh, but it is, as they climb higher and higher, a change takes place, that cumbersome clothing will become robes, symbolic of the covering of the righteousness of God.
The censers of incense will become the effectual, fervent spoken prayer of the righteous offered up in the presence of God unlike anything some of them have ever known. The Holy Spirit leads us, the Holy Ghost overtakes us, and while you know all that, there is a manifestation of his presence, just as when he came to the disciples and Paul, you may not see him but you will know he is standing right there. On that mountain top, or after the ascension of those spiritual “stairs”, however you choose to relate to it, it will be “Ask and it shall be given” And if this is your desire, get your motivation, remember those you “climb” for, keep climbing till you reach the top.
Psalm 65:4:“Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts; we will be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even thy holy temple.”
Psalm 12:7: “For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, Now will I arise, saith the Lord: I willset him in safety from him that puffeth (torments) at him.” Remember why you climb, and climb.
Φλογίζω/original post:01/17/2015. All rights reserved. Rev. Nina Brown Johnson 2015 REVISTED 08/20/2021
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
The sun may be shining, but it is night. The birds may be singing but it is night. For most, everything may appear well-lit and crystal clear but in the spirit world it is night. For the addict who is one hit away from the mouth of hell, it is night. For the prostitute who is one trick away from the wrong John, who will be the devil incarnate come to assure her entrance into hell, it is night. For the bullied teenager who is one razor blade away from ending it all, it is night. For those widowed and alone, whose loneliness eats away at their souls more viciously than any cancer, it is night. For those persecuted and imprisoned for their beliefs or simply for the sick pleasure of the forces of hell, still the brightest of days with the greatest, blinding magnification of the sun is the suffocating blackness of the most darkest of nights. Night Watchmen, those hired to protect and oversee the goods and properties of their employer. These particular watchmen actually being the biblical laborers hired in at that vital eleventh hour, because as dusk starts closing in, that harvest must not only be gathered, it must also be protected from the beasts of the field that attack to destroy it, even while the laborers work exhaustively to gather it. As it is the eleventh hour, this work must be done in complete unity, all while following one light that will light their way through the rows, showing both the ready crops and revealing the awaiting dangers. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Psalm 119:105 These are the night watchmen of the Lord, they stand in the night hours when destruction and mischief are most common, and sin tries to take cover under the darkness of night. While the rest of the world “sleeps”, these are they who will keep vigil, pray down strong holds, plead the blood of the Lamb over ones they have never even known and through intercessory prayer they will make a difference between life and death. They will through that prayer under the unified anointing of God will stand in the gap and make up the hedge around those who are unable to do it for themselves. Their petitions before the throne of grace will break chains of abuse and addictions and the anointing of God will break the chains of abuse and addictions. “BEHOLD, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord.” Psalm 134:1 Watchmen know who they are, and Night watchmen even more so.
Be vigilant, do not get discouraged and know that the power of the anointing of the secret prayers you pray alone are known of God, “who sees in secret, and will reward you openly”.
Ask that your prayers be accepted in agreement of unity with all those who are called as you are. Know this also that as this is the last Psalm in the “Songs of Degrees” (steps, stairs) and just as being “compassed about with songs in the night”, this is going somewhere, it is blessed and it is beginning of the “prayers of the saints.” Φλογίζω/ Original Post:01/01/2015. All rights reserved. Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
**REVISITED 03/05/2021** REVISTED again 08/17/2021 because now more than ever we need to
stand in prayer for those who are suffering persecution.
Please consider reading the remainder in this series, the links are below.
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
I love old sayings, people long ago learned lessons and passed that wisdom down to forewarn future generations. Ministers are like front line soldiers discovering what’s in the enemies arsenal and reporting back to the troops what weapon is needed to take them down. Some of the wisest words ever spoken were, “With friends like that, who needs enemies.” As Paul said “when he thought to do good, evil was ever-present with him.” Sometimes it is difficult for us to see just who our real enemies are. Think about it, the Bible says that Satan himself “can transform into an angel of light” and we know that he is well versed in the scripture and loves nothing more than to try to twist the word of God to snare, trap, and pervert us. Genesis 3:1(a) “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made…” and most know this story, through convincing Eve that she really, really wanted this and she should just trust him, it would all be okay, he deceived her into making a decision that we all paid for and Jesus gave his life to repair the damage that “friend” caused. David, not even trying to resist his lust for Bathsheba ( I know it was lust because he had tried to get Uriah to go home, hoping he would sleep with her and think he had fathered the baby and let them all live a lie) when all of his plans failed, he in effect had Uriah “murdered by war” using him to deliver his own death warrant. The wages of sin are death, this brought it down on his entire family. Nathan the Prophet went so far as to deliver the judgment handed down from God that the sword would never leave David’s house. So that voice as the serpent rose again, David’s son Amnon became completely possessed by a spirit of incestuous lust toward his half-sister Tamar. As Satan purposed all this in Amnon’s heart he sent his messenger with just the reassurance Amnon’s flesh needed to act upon that lust. 2 Samuel 13:2,3 ” And Amnon was so vexed (distressed) that he feel sick for his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin; and Amnon thought it hard for him to do anything to her ( knew it was wrong ). But Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shiva David’s brother: and Jonadab was a very subtil man.”
His “friend” talked him into raping her, destroying her and filling her brother(his half) Absalom with such hate that it mirrors the rebellion Lucifer led in his attempt to overthrow the Kingdom of Heaven.
He had Amnon murdered and led a rebellion against David and died trying to flee David’s army, when his long beautiful hair became caught and tangled on a tree branch leaving him helpless against the sword. Snared and tangled up, some prophetic symbolism in that, what unchecked bitterness and hate will do to us. That is what happens when one person chooses to listen to the wrong voice. A girl’s life was completely devastated, two brothers were dead, two mothers, a father, and an entire kingdom was left to mourn and to never be the same.
One more example, sometimes the enemy wants to take you down so bad that he will send a multitude of voices, because after all, how can so many be so wrong?
The story of Queen Esther tells us of Haman, the King’s power-hungry, right hand boy who hated the Jews especially Esther’s uncle, Mordecai because Mordecai refused to bow to him.
So Amidst his whining over the injustice of the situation,
Esther 5:14 “Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, Let a gallows be made fifty cubits high, and on the morrow speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon: then go merrily with the king unto the banquet. and this thing pleased Haman; and he caused the gallows to be made.”
Long story short, Haman was hanged on his own gallows and Mordecai got his job. God tells us “surely they shall gather together, but not by me, no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper.”
Haman fell into his own trap, a trap laid at the urging of those closest to him, who supposedly had his best interests in mind, telling him exactly what his blackened, sin-laden heart wanted to hear.
So like those collect calls from Egypt, you don’t realize the price until you get the bill and if you knew the cost you would have never agreed to accept those charges, it may be a bill like David’s, that his family ended up having to pay. Your true friends may not understand your faith, but they will respect it and be happy for you. Read Luke 15:8,9 the parable of the lady who found her lost silver and her friends rejoiced with her. Steer clear of “friends” who only want to drag you back to “Egypt”, because misery loves company and if they are not free they surely don’t want you to be. Just as with Adam and Eve, once the blinders were off and their eyes were opened to the truth,they knew the sin and the shame.
Amnon, when his “love” immediately turned to complete disgust and hatred once he had achieved his desire.
That is what sin does and no matter how good they make it sound or tell you just how much you are missing, if you give in to them, when the day comes, and it will come, like Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened, yours will be also and I promise you that your are not going to like what you see.
The truth is that not only are friends like these a danger to your soul, they also endanger theirs by tempting you as a child of God.
As the Bible teaches us, if we as believers defile this temple God will destroy it (us). Daniel 5 tells the story of Belshazzar, who had the bright idea that it would be fun to defile the vessels of the Lord which had been taken from the temple by Nebuchadnezzar.
He and all with him drank from them, while praising their false pagan gods and having the equivalent to a big drunken feast, within an hour, his eyes beheld with horror and his knees actually shook with terror as a hand appeared from nowhere and proceeded to write out his death warrant on his own wall, when Daniel interrupted it he would soon learn that no one could save him from the judgment of God and he was dead that night.
We are vessels, holy unto the Lord, set aside for his use and anyone who wishes to defile us will truly have hell to pay. Friends like these you don’t need. Pray and ask the Lord for real ones. And while you are waiting, remember he is the best friend you will ever have!
Φλογίζω / 05/24/2014. All rights reserved. Rev. Nina Brown Johnson 2015
REVISTED 08/07/2021
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
“The wilderness and the solitary (desert) place shall be glad for them: and the desert shall blossom as the rose.
It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and signing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.
Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm (make firm) the feeble knees. Say unto them that are of a fearful heart (are afraid), Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then the lame man shall leap as a hart (a deer), and the tongue of the dumb (mute) shall sing; for in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desert.
And the parched ground shall become a pool and thirsty land springs of water; in the habitation of dragons (jackals),where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
And an highway shall be there, and a way (road),And it shall be called The way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it: but is shall be for those; the wayfaring men (those who walk the road), though fools, shall not err therein (will not go astray).
No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed of the Lord shall walk there.
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; the shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Isaiah 35
Well to get started, Happy leap day, Happy leap year, Happy Sadie Hawkins Day! That is a lot for a day that only comes every four years!
It is cold and snowy in my part of the world, looked quite like a post card this morning, absolutely gorgeous with snow covering every branch of every tree and glittering down sparkling as the sun tried to shine through.
And it is a beautiful refreshing change from this time yesterday, as I was feeling a little ” Bob crackit-ish” having just came out of a nineteen hour power outage caused by a fallen tree…ah the joys of electric heat.
And things can and do change fast sometimes, like the old saying, “What a difference a day can make.”
Like our passage above, I know that seemed excessive, an entire chapter, but it is needed. God often works in our lives the same way, one day is catastrophic, your entire world crashing around you, such as in the first verse, a spiritual wilderness, a barren deserted land in which you feel that you have found yourself helplessness alone.
Then Jesus comes in and lets us know that He is already there, He is in that place with you and for you, and in those places of solitude is the very place that God often uses to bring that gladness and joy of his presence to us.
This is why the desert can be “glad” for us, and why it can be a place, starting out with feelings of lonely abandonment and quickly becoming a beautiful fruited land in where find a renewing and strengthening of your personal relationship with God.
A place in which you learn complete trust and complete surrender while gaining faith and complete confidence in his power over your life and the blessed knowledge that he is doing something wonderful in you despite what everything around you may be saying to the contrary.
And the blooming of that rose, a rose not only blooming but blossoming into perfection out of the parched dry ground.
A rose that would seem doomed to never in bud given the hardness of the soil in which it is planted but once those sweet waters come bringing the glory and joy of the land over that land, everything will change.
Wasn’t Shakespeare’s famous line that told even by any name a rose would smell just as sweet?
Ah, but I do beg to differ…
“I AM the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As my lily among the thorns, so is my love among the daughters.” Song of Solomon 2:1,2
And talk about beautiful fragrances…
“Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness; therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows (more than any other), All thy garments smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia…” Psalm 45: 7, 8 (a)
No name greater, no fragrance sweeter than our God, the only true rose, the only rose whose love does bloom in us, even in the middle of a desert and who is the lily producing a beautiful sweet fragrance covering and replacing the smell of the awful ash left by what had once consumed our life.
That sweet aroma of that lily, whose beauty shines forth even from among the painful thorns as we go through the valleys of this world, as all the “dragons”, all that would hurt and hinder are made silent and renewing, as that fresh grass growing starts to take place. So you see, you can’t stop, you can not give up, because where you are today can change in twinkling of an eye. The place of the desert that you may feel will engulf you may very well be the place you look back on one day with a higher knowledge and understanding that if it had not been for that desert you may have never be given the only truly perfect rose.
“Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour (aroma).” Ephesians 5:1,2
Nothing, absolutely nothing that can be sweeter or any rose more beautiful than Jesus.
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
“Then the eleven disciples went way into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.And when they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to all things whatsoever I have commanded you;
And, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. A-men,” Matthew 28:16-20
I am sure that you are very familiar with those verses, and I have used them many times myself over the years.
And when my thoughts for this post were hitting, I had actually thought about a television commercial. And I know how strange that may sound, and it wasn’t about the product or service offered, it was about the support.
A trainer is encouraging a person by telling her “I got you” and that has always just reminded me of how Jesus encourages us, that when storms that we had expected to cease somehow still swirl all around us and the battles that we have entered into full of hope, faith, and determination assured that victory will come and we can find ourselves doubting, questioning as that battle seems to go on endlessly in an exhausting dead heat.
We often wonder and question, much like the disciples that found themselves doubting. just like Thomas when he had doubted that Jesus rose from the dead. And they found themselves in the place that he had destined them to be, the place they were told to go.
That is the deal with the doubt and uncertainty that comes at us when life goes upside down, the first thought the enemy brings to us is, “IF”, IF you were where you should be with the Lord, none of this would be happening.”
Has that ever went through your mind?
I am sure, if we would be honest, this has went through many minds. Because that is how the enemy uses doubt and it is one of his more powerful weapons, and that is how you have to view, nothing more, nothing less.
As I have “preached” many times in this little blog, reiterating Romans 8:38,39 NO ONE and NOTHING can ever separate us from God so the enemy uses doubt to cause us to separate ourselves from God through the false belief that somehow we are out of his will when nothing in our lives feels like it could possibly be his will.
It causes us to THINK…RETHINK… and finally OVERTHINK everything that we have been taught about the Word of God and about God and make us completely question our relationship with him. So don’t!
Try out a new weapon of your own. Change your battleplan.
Jesus promised us many things but it ultimately up us to believe those promises and sometimes we have to look at things differently, because how we view a situation or an expected outcome is not always how he views it and when those things go a way not of our choosing NEVER means that he does not love and NEVER means that he has suddenly changed his mind and DECIDED to go against his own word and forsake us. He will NEVER do that.
And once we understand that we can see truly step back away from our battles and see the truth that we can’t fight life and we certainly can not fight death but we can have peace in knowing that he is the ONLY one who holds our tomorrow and the only reason we can get through today.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.
For as the rain cometh down, and snow from heaven, and returneth not thither (it does not go back up), but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return to me void (empty, without fruit) but it shall ACCOPMLISH that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I send it. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace…” Isaiah 55:8-11a
Trust him, remember his promises and don’t let doubt steal that joy, joy that you need, joy that is your strength, the joy OF the Lord, joy not in this world but the joy in knowing that the God of the universe loves you!
He’s “got” you and he is NEVER going to let you go and know that it is in that joy in him, joy in soul, not to be confused with being joyous in this world, it is hard to be cheerful when your heart is broken, so no, it is not cheerful joy, it is the joy in salvation and the promise of eternity.
And that is the joy that will bring you out of the wilderness and lead you forth out of that battle in his peace.
“RESTORE unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free (generous) spirit.” Psalm 51:12
For something to be restored it had to have already be possessed, And when we start our journey with Jesus we are full of that joy, the joy that comes with the realization that his grace and mercy had spared our through our days of darkness and sin.
Then as we mature in him and life comes as life does we find ourselves in that doubt… forgetting that joy.
He never changes, he accepts and loves us just as much as he did the day we accepted his salvation, the change lies within us. that why he tells us of his thoughts and our thoughts, and I have been very guilty of this myself, we have our thoughts of what should happen on earth but he gave us promises NOT of this earth an dour true hope and salvation are not of this earth.
Being human we want all the promises fulfilled here(and some are) but our hope is supposed to rest in the ETERNAL outcome. And that is your joy, that is your hope, that EVERY single morning while you are in this world, on this earth, HIS mercy is renewed every single morning and His mercy endures FOREVER. NOTHING will ever change that, nothing. Get in your prayer closet and spend time with him in the Holy Ghost, let heaven bless earth remember those words that will NEVER return to him unfruitful… I AM WITH YOU ALWAY…
And He’s got ya! He did not create you, love you, so that he could then just suddenly decide to you out to the wolves! Jesus does not work that way!
Have a blessed week! Love and peace till next time… Praying it’ll be a blessing to you TODAY!!
Rev. Nina Brown Johnson / phlogizo360 2019 REVISITED 07/20/2021, Φλογιζω NBJ/2021
If you have never heard this, please check it out, (from YouTube)
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
“Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?
I raised thee up(awakened) under the apple tree:…” Song of Solomon 7:5
The wilderness the daughters of God have been very acquainted with since the dawn of time. Since the fall of man, the enemy has ensured that we would be considered no more than property and every day countless of us are raped, abused, forced into prostitution and in many countries we are still property at the complete mercy of often unmerciful husbands.
While in other corners of the world, unable to carry lineage names daughters are aborted and others sold into slavery. Christianity of old.
Tainted by MEN also seemed to teach that women are inferior but the truth is far from that. My biggest struggle in coming to Christ was this very topic, I was like, Why are women always the bad ones? Misguided teaching of confused or intentionally biased doctrine has kept many away and who could blame them? Many modern women who have been left to support their children completely alone, who have struggled to pay their bills, put food on their tables, educate themselves and their children, just barely surviving through the world.
And if they happen into the wrong church they will hear that they are of a lesser value to God than their male counterparts. To “fit in” they will need to change everything about themselves and sit down and above all shut up. Even after God had enlightened me to the truth and helped me understand his word, I still had trouble wrapping my head around a few things. I did most of intense studying before my child was school aged, after everyone was asleep and my house cleaned, I would stay up and read until I could not function any longer.
One night I happened upon Judges 19 which in my opinion contains the most disturbing and gruesome story in the entire Bible. It mirrors the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, ironically found in Genesis 19, when Lot had offered his virgin daughters to the deviant, demon possessed pagans, who were demanding he turn over his male visitors to them, “that they may know them” translated, so they could gang rape them.
The Bible clear to point out that Lot offered these girls with a “do whatever you want to them” agreement to try to get them to take them instead of the male visitors.
To break Judges 19 down, a Levite had a concubine, it says she “played the harlot”. I’m not sure how that worked since she was “kept” for that purpose, double standards of the day, which still equate in our culture as the difference between a guy being a “player” and a woman being a “slut”.
Another problem Jesus addressed when he came to earth, he wants two people married, period. Enlightening them to their double standards when they wanted judgment against the adulterous woman, of course it takes two, but they seemed to have forgotten to bring her partner in this sin before the Lord, His answer to them translating to this, if they themselves had no sin, go ahead hit her.
Standing in front of a Holy God they couldn’t do it.
But at the time of Judges, men could have as many women as they wanted but it was never God’s plan. To get on with the story, she went back to her father’s house, so he comes after her to talk her into coming back, finally she agreed, and after being detained several days they went on their way.
He refused to stay anywhere other than lands belonging to the tribes of Israel and insisted on traveling to a city of the tribe of Benjamin, they had nowhere to stay, so an old man invited them to stay with him, pleading that they not stay outside, soon just as with Sodom, there were men at his door demanding he turn over this man to them that they “may know him”.
Picture perfect to Sodom, only lacking the presence of the angels that saved Lot’s daughters. So the old guy offers his daughter and the concubine, again with the agreement to whatever they wanted to them, just do not touch the man.
They refused, they still wanted the man, so the guy just takes the concubine and throws her out to them and they repeatedly gang rape her until the morning and then they let her go.
She makes it to the door of the house where she collapses, she just lies there helplessly until he gets up, opens the door and finds her and he actually tells her quite simply, to get up they have to get going, needless to say she is dead. He dismembers her body into twelve parts and sends a part to each of the tribes and war is waged. It wasn’t that they raped her or that she was dead that bothered him, it was because they destroyed his property.
I read this and I was alone with my shock and absolute horror and knowing the Lord, I just asked “Why, Why are we of so little value?” These “men” would not even try to fend off these monsters, not even try to muster up an ounce of anything remotely resembling courage to fight for themselves.
Forget chivalry, or protection, an ounce of some sort of compassion, but to just offer these women as less than nothing and to do it to save themselves. I just could not understand it.
I do understand that at the time the thought of this being done to men was so unthinkable that they were desperate to prevent it. But they could have tried to prevent it for happening to any of them.
The God I know would never sanction this stuff or ever condone it and I was in tears, and it just hit me to keep reading, the bottom line is this, at the very end of Judges, “In those days there was no king in Israel: Every man did what was right in his own eyes.”
This was never God!
He never put these things in men’s hearts and for years it was falsely taught and still is in many places.
Men still do what is right in their own eyes and only God can make them see the truth. But it is time for the awakening of his daughters.
No matter what false beliefs that women have been brainwashed by, we have to let them know that this is not what Jesus is about. He does not hate women and did not create us to be objects of amusement to fulfill the twisted lusts of men nor to be their gender indentured servants.
If we are ever to see those that are oppressed be saved and free, they have to know the truth about him and who he is and most of all who they are in him.
A forgotten child, much like David, when no one would even waste their time to call him to be presented before Samuel the Prophet, because in their eyes why would a prophet possibly want to speak with someone so unimportant and simple?
A forgotten child from the greatest of tribes, who just happened to be a woman, a sister to the twelve tribes of Israel, a forgotten child that no one bothers to mention because she was not as important as her brothers, or so they thought.
Dinah, the seventh child Leah bore to Jacob, a woman who also a thing or two about pain and substandard treatment, who had been raped and used as a bargaining chip which led to a mass slaughter.
Her bloodline STILL offering an inheritance. because she was one of the tribe.
The most prophetic beauty with Dinah is the meaning of her name, “JUDGEMENT.”
It is awakening time for the sisters, the beautiful, forgotten army who have a straight shot to the heart of the Father.
You are so strong, so powerful, and yet, you do not even know WHO YOU ARE in HIM, and so unaware of your predestined place in this end time end game.
You are the spiritual virgins and maidens forever following to proclaim the majesty, beauty, and holiness of the Kings of Kings.
It is the love and proclamations that Hannah, and Mary, and never forget Mary Magdalene, He came to her first because she needed him the most.
Take your place in the kingdom, it is not going to be accomplished with half an army. The adoration and praises from hearts that have known sorrows and pain that men can never begin to understand.
A relationship to God who will bring justice for others on behalf of the cries of the souls of his daughters. Unlike the time of Judges, unlike the women who are your sisters the world over, who are oppressed and in bondage.
You have access to a King, the King, and The King over heaven, and earth, and the entire universe, He will plead their cause if you bring them before his throne in that secret prayer closet. He will bring justice for those your tears flood the altar for, when you allow your soul to be awakened under that tree, awakened by a love so strong, so powerful, so consuming that you wear that love as a covering for the whole world to see.
“I AM the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among the thorns so is my love among the daughters. as the apple tree among the trees of wood so it my beloved among the sons.
I sat down under his shadow with great delight his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me into the banqueting house and his banner of me was LOVE” Song of Solomon 2:1-4
Translated: KNOW HIM for who HE IS, allow his love to bloom in you, in spite of the valleys and thorns, breathe in his sweetness and lift you up out of those ashes and hide in the secret place of the Most High, under the shadow of his wings, taste the goodness of his salvation and let him bring you into his house of feasting and the love of Jehovah Nissi is his war flag over his daughters and the love is the secret to it all.
Φλογίζω / 02/05/2015. All rights reserved. Rev. Nina BrownJohnson 2015
For later posts in the realm of all things feminine, check these out:
REVISTED:08/01/2019 I like to revisit these older posts, because sometimes we just need to be reminded of who Jesus REALLY is and who he has called us to be in him.
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
Don’t you just love it when you voice an opinion in mixed company only to have the person with the opposing view look at you and say in that smug tone laced with sarcasm and disgust at the mere thought that you could possibly question their obviously superior intelligence, and they say “And you are??? I for one love it! Sometimes we need to remind ourselves of exactly who we are in God. Elijah the prophet of God, who was allowed to pray that it not rain, pray the rain would return and pray that fire would come down from heaven in the presence of his enemies. Elijah started those prayers with this statement “If I be a man of God..”
Paul, in his writings dubbed himself “The prisoner of the Lord”.
James refers to himself as “Servant of Jesus Christ”.
John the “Beloved”.
And Mary who never gave herself a title but at his feet she knew exactly who she was and she fell absolutely, helplessly in love with him, a love born from being touched by love itself in it’s purest form, a love so gentle, humble so powerful that it had restored her soul.
She knew to be separated from Him would be a fate far worse than hell. They and so many more throughout the Bible have a very common denominator, they knew who they were in God and never let anyone convince them otherwise.
Today we hear so many voices telling us what to think what to eat, what to buy, what we should wear, and who would should be, our minds can become so clouded that we don’t even know who were are and we become too quick to forget who were are in Him. To achieve our purpose in these blessed last days God has chosen us to be born into, please give up a little you time, or TV time, just make a little time to get in that prayer closet, your personal secret place that is just and God, pray and fast, and remember this does not have to be food, you can fast anything.
Salvation and grace are completely free gifts, but to get in position for the last day outpouring of the spirit and great harvest of souls, and to allow him to stir the gifts and the calling he has placed in you, well it requires diligence on your part. 2 Thessalonians 2:3, tells of the great falling away of the church, we’ve been seeing that come to pass over the last few years. It is a time to weed out those who serve one day a week or for some reason other than a relationship with Christ and they will fall away.
Those who are willing to make any sacrifice necessary to see His Kingdom come will be those left standing, the approved of God . The ones before us who held on, no matter what suffering, ridicule and persecution they had to endure. and when they fell they sought God to lift them up again. David was human just as human as we are, yet he made tragic mistakes but he sought forgiveness. God said David was a man after his own heart, I know the common thought on it, but I really take it as David sought the very heart of God, to know Him and be part of the very heart of God. His praise was constant and he continually sought to have his heart searched, cleansed, restored and anything that may stand between them to be removed. God wants to help us and there is nothing inside of us that He doesn’t already know.
He is a supreme gentlemen, he will never embarrass you, or tell the whole world all of your secrets.
He wants us to bring everything to Him and admit that we have problems so he can help us. Everyone needs trusted prayer partners but you also need that one on one with God, seek purification, seek out the calling and gifts and seek confirmation of them at church. We can feel led in certain areas, but I tell you ,whatever area of ministry that stirs your heart is usually where your calling will be found BUT always study God’s word and if seems like a foreign language in the King James, get the New King James, it’s more easily understood, there several of versions of the Bible out there but I personally stop here, but no matter what you are called to do, you must have a good foundation of the word of God. It protects you from false doctrine especially when you are seeking.
“Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which is given thee by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.” 1 Timothy 4:14
I feel this is another shortcoming of modern churches today, we are to seek these gifts because they are not for us, they are needed to accomplish the work in the Kingdom.
“Meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly unto them; thy profiting may appear to all. TAKE HEED UNTO THYSELF, AND UNTO THE DOCTRINE; CONTINUE IN THEM: FOR IN DOING THIS THOU SHALT SAVE THYSELF AND ALL THAT HEAR THEE.” 1 Timothy 4:14,15
The time has come to seek and stir up those gifts of God, as he said if you will do these things you will see the lost saved. And while seeking, the enemy will rear his head to attempt to discourage you, and he will ask “And you are?”
Take your answer from Paul, 1 Corinthians 15:10 (a)”But by the grace of God I am what I am; and his grace which was bestowed on me was not in vain:..”
We are the generation chosen to seek His face, now it is up to us to believe that!
Original Post Date: 02/15/14 Φλογίζω/ All Rights Reserved. Nina BrownJohnson/ 2015 Revisited 06/19/2019
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
Mothers, we are formed in their bodies, they feed us, diaper us, love us and nurture us. They dry our tears and relieve all our fears. They chase the boogey men away. Spend sleepless nights by our bedside when we are sick.
Their love and patience pour over us as we spend hours crying through all the heartaches of puppy love and the growing pains that only a mother’s comfort can see us through. My own mother always had an awesome ability that allowed her even in the worst possible circumstance to see so beyond the crisis at hand and see a better time in the future. And I have truly been through a thing or two, including having to file for a restraining order at the ripe old age of eighteen and my mother always reassured me of several things.
#1. Things always look brighter after a good night sleep. We often worry about bad things that never actually happen.
#2. No matter how bad that day may seem, one day we really do look back and whatever it was that almost broke us will seem like a nightmare that never really even happened.
#3. An old, old one which is true and will always be true, whatever doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.
You know she was right on all counts, and she still is!
I always thought if I could even be “half the woman” that she is I would do well. She is beautiful inside and out and has such a dignity and grace about her that is almost regal and loves Jesus more than life itself.
Mothers are like beautiful jewels, they come in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes. Each one exquisitely crafted by the master’s hand.
Maybe your birth mother or maybe the mother God chose just for you by joining you together through adoption.
Maybe He chose your grandmother or Aunt as the defining maternal hand to guide you, love you, teach you, and above all nurture you in Him.
Nevertheless, we all know there is no one, no one like our mother.
The relationship between Mary and Jesus is such a beautiful example of this one-of-a-kind bond. We know the story, Mary the blessed virgin, to whom an angel came to proclaim that she would give birth to the Son of the Almighty God, who had in fact created her.
Without a doubt she was scared to death, how do you conceive without a mate? An answer which came when she was overshadowed by the Holy Ghost.
How do you knowingly carry the Son of God inside your body?
How do you tell your future husband and your family that this is true, and it really happened to you? How do you travel ninety miles on a donkey and give birth in a stable surrounded by his beautiful animal creations knowing this child is the one to save all of creation?
How do you accept the gifts of frankincense, gold, and myrrh brought from faraway lands by wise men on bended knee who have been led there by a star to pay honor and tribute to the King of all Kings?
How do react when the shepherds come to worship him, relaying that the message of his arrival had been proclaimed to them by the host of heaven who proceeded to sing praises to the glory of God in the Highest as heaven came down and kissed earth?
How do you give the offering of the poorest of poor when dedicating him, never, ever worrying about providing for him?
How do you hear a prophecy from one who had been promised he would not see death until he beheld the face of this promised child, when that prophecy is that “a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also”?
As this child grows and maternal instincts take over, as he is held, loved, learns to crawl, walk and says his first words, has his first bumps and bruises and one day decides to stay behind and talk with the elders rather than join the caravan his family traveled with.
How do you understand, when you ask why he did this and he asks you “Did you not know I must be about my Father’s business?”,
I will tell you how, he was her baby, even though he was divine, she knew he was God’s Son, but she was human, and she was his mother and like all of us, that was her baby and as she watched him grow, he became what he was…her son whom she loved more than life itself.
Fast forward twenty-one years after pondering what did he mean by this, as he begins his ministry and watching his miracles (she had to know he held this power because she asked him to do something for her friends at the wedding when he turned the water into wine, which was his first public display of this power) she watched as her own people hated him and threatened his life, she watched as his ministry grew.
She knew of his arrest and public torture and finally seeing him bloody, beaten beyond recognition and carrying a wooden beam to his execution, his battered body falling under the weight of it. And unable to go to him, to hold him, to touch his face, to tell him everything would be okay and this was still her baby and there was nothing in the universe she could do to stop it because it was the piercing of her soul. There would be no words to describe her sorrow.
How could her beautiful son who hung nailed to a cross, nearing death look down and want to be sure his mother would be cared for before dying, because he was her firstborn son.
John 19:25-27 “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.
When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, (John) he saith unto his mother Woman, behold thy son!
Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.”
They seriously wrote the book, the ultimate story of love between a mother and child, and a wonderful example to us about the love and respect we should have for own mothers.
I hope all have a blessed Mother’s Day and if you have lost your Mother, rejoice in knowing just as Jesus and Mary we reunited and are together forever and ever, you will be also. And if you know a lady who maybe has lost her children or they are “too busy” for her, please, please consider “adopting” her for Mother’s Day.
A card, flowers or just a visit can change her world. Because loneliness is one “disease” we can cure!
Remember Jesus said if you do it for one of his little one’s (saints) you’ve done it for him! Because He is the King and these ladies are precious, precious jewels that help make up his Majestic crown! They are precious to him! Φλογίζω 2014 Revised 2019 & 2020/ May 08, 2022,
*Post Note: My beautiful mother mentioned above has since went home to be with Jesus, I was blessed beyond words to be her child.
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
“Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; according to thy mercy remember me for thy goodness’ sake O Lord. Good and upright IS the Lord: therefore he will teach sinners in the way. The meek (humble) will he guide in judgment(justice): and the meek he will teach his way.
ALL the paths of the Lord are MERCY and TRUTH unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. For thy name’s sake, O, Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.” Psalm 25: 7-11
Nothing can eat away our life, our health, and our soul quite like guilt. The most self destructive of all human emotions and the biggest of all burdens that are to be brought and LEFT AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS.
It is often the binding tie that satan uses to hold his prisoners captive, convincing them in themselves that they DO NOT deserve to be free from the chains of actions taken yesterday whose consequences are forever now written.
He uses it on Christians, who even though they have come to the cross, they have failed to lay down that burden and continue to beat and badger themselves over and over again, not accepting the truth of forgiveness and allowing that guilt and regret to taint and rob the joy and peace that Jesus provided at the cross.
When we are constantly emotionally punishing ourselves over and over, the enemy has little to fear because we are doing his job for him. Why does he need to accuse the brethren when the brethren accuse themselves?
Regret WIIL make you sick, it WILL make you miserable, and it can very well lead you to hell, IF you allow guilt and regret to prevent you from accepting God’s salvation.
We can think we are not worth but Jesus thought we were VERY MUCH WORTH IT and He gave His life for ALL our sins. ALL of our mistakes, shortcomings, and failures and to hold the guilt rather than accepting forgiveness is making our guilt our god.
Regret is just guilt’s enabler, a life spent pondering things we could have and should have done is again a life, precious, given of God, completed wasted in endless analytical thoughts of how things could have been different.
Guilt and regret have no place in your life, they are past tense only and to bring them with you in the present is only sabotaging your future and the well-being and futures of all you interact with and have influence with.
As we know I am BIG on preaching influence because WE all have influence, even if you live alone, you have the POWER to impact others, someway, somehow, or maybe due to your availability, there is a ministry of service and outreach with “your name written all over it”, just waiting in the background, until you are ready to shed guilt and regret, send them packing, and spread your spiritual wings and let God lead you where HE ALREADY PREDESTINED FOR YOU TO GO!
But if your holding guilt and regret, He is NOT going to just reach down and jerk them out of your hands, YOU HAVE TO BE WILLING TO LET THEM GO! Then He can give you all the good things of His mercy and His Truth that HE WANTS TO GIVE YOU.
The verses above, for me is the absolute guide to repentance, quoted them many, many times myself and when I was first saved it was reading these verses over and over through floods and rivers of tears.
We have ALL messed up, we have ALL sinned, we have ALL been best friends with guilt and regret, but Jesus is faithful and HE wants us to let them go and TRUST in Him and forget all those things and press on, IN HIM.
And the ONLY way to true freedom IS found in Him and His blood and the washing by that blood, we can’t drink them away, can’t snort them away, and your sure not going to wish them away, all the methods people use in attempt to dull their inner pain always ends the same, once your down and the crash comes your only more messed up and deeper and deeper in that sinking pit and NOTHING is going away, more regret is just being added.
Continuing in Psalm 25:12-22: ” What man (human) is he that feareth the Lord? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose. HIS SOUL SHALL DWELL AT EASE (in goodness) and his seed (descendants) shall inherit the earth.
The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew (cause them to know) his covenant. Mine (my) eyes are ever toward the Lord; FOR HE SHALL PLUCK MY FEET OUT OF THE NET. Turn thee unto me, (please come to me) have mercy upon me; for I am desolate (lonely) and afflicted.
THE TROUBLES OF MY HEART ARE ENLARGED (burdened with worry, guilt, regret) ;O BRING THOU ME OUT OF MY DISTRESSES. LOOK UPON MINE AFFLICATION AND MY PAIN; AND FORGIVE MY SINS. Consider mine enemies (negative emotions and even ourselves ARE enemies); for they hate me with a cruel hatred.
O keep my soul, and DELIVER ME: let me not be ashamed; for I put my TRUST IN THEE. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I WAIT ON THEE (wait IN FAITH on thee). Redeem Israel, O, God, out of ALL his troubles.”
Jesus is more than willing to heal us in these places, if we only ask. So many are trapped in prisons of heartache, regret, and remorse but PLEASE, PLEASE, as a minister of HIS GRACE, I am pleading with you, DON’T STAY THERE.
We ALL have those spans of time we dearly wish would could go back and change.. but we can’t. What we CAN change is how those times can be used to propel you into your destiny and in to the kingdom where you can maybe one day use those lessons learned to help another NOT make the same choices.
As my very wise sister always says, it really is like burying something dead and going back and digging up rotten old bones.Take them to the cross and leave them there and never think about them again.
God gives us beauty for ashes, to produce ashes something has had to burn. Don’t wait another moment, You can talk to God anywhere, you don’t have to be in a church house, HE WILL MEET YOU WHEREVER YOU ARE.
STOP being your own enemy and unwittingly sabotaging your own life, lay guilt and regret, and all that hurts you today, on HIS altar and let it all be burned away. Let a NEW day unfold because you will never EVER know freedom until you are FREE in Him. Blessing and Peace to you in Jesus’ name.
Φλογίζω Σαλπιζω NBJ 2017 Original Post 02/27/2017 Revisited 02/14/2021 Praying this will be a blessing to someone today! Also my beautiful sister who is referenced above as since went home to be with Jesus, two years now on the 16th, but her love,words, and wisdom live on, so today, please don’t let anything, anything keep you away from funding peace in Jesus, He is there, and He is only a heartbeat away.
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
Dig this. Picture yourself in a hospital waiting patiently on a loved one to emerge from the ER, a person is brought in bloody and beaten and as they wait to be seen and being prompted by sympathy mingled with curiosity, you strike up a conversation, the person goes on to tell you the horrific story of what they had just endured and finally they end by pointing to another person, that sits handcuffed, staring angrily at the floor as a policeman stands watch over them, the person goes on to nonchalantly say, “But it’s okay, I just have to get well now because we have a trip planned for next week.”
We would have serious questions, wouldn’t we? We would want to know why someone could be hurt so badly and yet in the next breath treat the other person as their BFF. And we would question the sanity in putting themselves in that situation yet again.
So why do we, as Christians put so much undue pressure on ourselves in the area of forgiveness? And No, don’t get all mad at me BEFORE you hear me out. I KNOW Jesus said that if we do not forgive God will not forgive us.
BUT forgiveness can be a funny, funny thing. Too often people are pressured into the statement of “I forgive them” but deep down inside what is really going on? God SEES it all, He sees our hearts, He sees our pain and He sees the hurt someone else has caused us AND He also sees the exact moment that we WILL forgive, TRULY forgive that person and the funny thing is, we usually don’t even know it ourselves until it has already happened.
But we when feel that we NEED to SAY we forgive for the sake of forgiving all that really happens is words have come out of our mouth but that dagger is still lodged in our heart. That is not freedom and we should never feel that we have to put on a “brave” church face and hide what is slowly killing us inside, because God already knows and even when you feel pressured by others to feel, think, and act a certain way, God wants the real you, tears, pain, and all because that is what He works with.
He wants you to have joy, and peace and sometimes that requires getting our feet bloody and scratched up walking through briers to find the true path. PROVERBS 18:14 : ” The spirit of a man (person) will sustain his infirmity (sustain them through sickness) but a wounded (broken) spirit WHO CAN BEAR?”
NO ONE, no one can bear it. I know there are those who have achieved that level of oneness that sticks and stones truly don’t break their bones, that they can truly rejoice in persecutions and truly bless those who hurt them but this is for the other 99.999% hurting in the world, feeling like they are not quite where they should be in the kingdom because they keep fighting the same battle with this giant.
Let me show you two sides to this coin. ROMANS 12:17-21: ” Recompense (repay) to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. IF it be possible AS MUCH AS LIETH IN YOU , live peaceably with all men.
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place to wrath: for it is written, VENGEANCE IS MINE; I WILL REPAY, saith the Lord.
Therefore IF THINE ENEMY HUNGER, FEED HIM; IF HE THIRST, GIVE HIM DRINK: FOR IN DOING SO THOU SHALT HEAP COALS OF FIRE ON HIS HEAD. Be not OVERCOME with evil, but OVERCOME evil with good.”
Notice this verse said ENEMY, never said a person who is just misunderstood. No, we have real enemies, and because we are all wired differently, we are told, IF, IF it is possible AS much as we are mentally, spiritually, and emotionally capable of to live peacefully with ALL people.
IF we can and if not, “RESIST the devil and he WILL flee from you” “Give NO PLACE to the devil” and there is nothing scriptural requiring us to us to be ran over and over and used as a doormat and proclaiming long-suffering when JESUS came and died on the cross to GIVE YOU LIFE and LIFE more abundantly!
Sometimes we just get so chummy with the giants that we fail to see what they really are. IF he’s hungry feed him, IF he is thirsty, water him, and the reason for this is that they hated Jesus “without a cause”, when He came in mercy, and goodness, completely sinless, NEVER harming anyone, they HATED Him.
So when you are faced with your enemy and you show kindness rather than hate, God will use that when He brings them under judgment and conviction for their actions against you. The treatment you have suffered will be brought back to their mind and they will have no excuse, no reason, not one example of what YOU have done to hurt them, that they can give to the Lord in explanation of their behavior.
And that can lead to repentance and at the end of the day, if you asked yourself this question, if you COULD see that person eternally, condemned to the fire of hell, forever and ever, to be tormented without end, would you REALLY want that to happen to them? No, mercy rises up and that is where true forgiveness begins.
The flip side is this, what if your enemy is of the “church”, well, like my old favorite, not all that glitters is gold, a lot of it is a hefty coat of glitter covering up some seriously tarnished metal that needs a good cleaning, but anyway, they will be hindered in their own journey UNTIL they make it right with you, they may run on for a while but when the time comes and it gets down to the nitty-gritty in the area of their gifts and calling in the Lord, this will happen:
MATTHEW 5:23,24: ” Therefore, if thou bringest thy gift to the altar, and THERE rememberest that thy brother HATH OUGHT AGAINST THEE; LEAVE there thy gift before the altar, and GO THY WAY; FIRST be reconciled to thy brother, and THEN COME AND OFFER THY GIFT.”
Jesus will remind them at that moment, no one can say that if you have been hurt that deep or that offended that they do not know they caused it. He will remind them and then they can choose to obey God in making things right or they can leave that gift THERE unused at the altar, but it will not be accepted until they do as He commanded. And that is for ALL of us.
So, we have covered the bases on the why, and the how’s, either way, your pain has not been overlooked by the one who sees all and in both instances, enemy of frenemy, they will be dealt with but hopefully for the good and for a higher purpose.
Now to get through the waiting period. LUKE 23:33,34:” And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the two malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO.”
Forgive them because the price of their actions would be incalculably beyond what they could ever imagine. And the blood HE SHED, is the blood of the lamb by which we now overcome, and the testimony of what the shedding of that blood has purchased for us is the good by which evil IS overcame.
Unaddressed issues and hurt will ruin our hearts, our spirits, and destroy us from the inside out that is why Satan sends so much of it, but I want you to know this, do not beat yourself up if you are having trouble letting go of something.
Do not allow the enemy or others to tell you how you should feel or how you fast you should overcome, a lot of people are really good at giving advice, and it is mighty easy to judge when they have never been in those same shoes, and those people you need to avoid like the plague! If they are gonna talk to me with advice from the first pew, they’d better have some scars to show me or they can just talk to someone else, because you do not overcome unless you have had something to overcome.
May sound harsh, but too many are hurt, wounded, and left out in the field to die because they are made to feel like if they have problems, or can’t smile every waking moment, or make one mistake that they are not kingdom material and if they have overcoming that must be done on that journey they will be viewed as outcasts. Who did Jesus come to save again? The hurt, the wounded, the lost, something went seriously wrong along the doctrinal lines with that thinking when people are shamed for feeling, lost, hurt, abandoned.
Matthew 6:33: “Seek ye FIRST the kingdom of God, and HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS; and ALL these things shall be added unto you.”
Trust Jesus, pray honestly, openly, He knows your hurt and He is a great listener, part of healing is talking about it and “getting it off our chests”, there is such freedom in that alone, and be honest, ASK him to take away the anger, the hurt, and allow you to overcome by His blood and pray for that person WHEN you feel led, when it can be a sincere, honest prayer, ASK God to allow you to SEE the troubled soul BEHIND the person that has hurt you and you will be amazed what can happen once God turns on the compassion from Him inside of you.
And then just try to “live peaceably”, forget what happened, try to not think about and one day you will be shocked when you discover “it” is simply not there anymore, you can be faced with the one who hurt you and have absolutely no apprehension or hurt, or anger because part of that righteousness of God, as you SEEK Him, is the overcoming in areas that we can never overcome alone. Trust, Trust, Trust.
MATTHEW 29,31: ” Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them SHALL NOT FALL ON THE GROUND WITHOUT YOUR FATHER.” “FEAR YE NOT THEREFORE, YE ARE OF MORE VALUE THAN MANY SPARROWS.” Be honest with Him and He will not let you fall!
Φλογίζω Σαλπιζω NBJ 2016
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
I am really seriously trying to avoid the news, all news. World news, internet news, people relying the news I missed to me, because after the stories that are being reported everyday, it is truly hard for, I believe ANYONE not to become a wee bit disturbed by all of it. It started off with a page feed on my Facebook about a beast who had been sentenced to fifty-five years in prison and a twelve million dollar fine for his crime. I can’t even bring myself to get into the details of his reign of absolute horror.
It seriously made me rethink my anti-death penalty stance. I have never understood how we can be against abortion and yet justify the killing of someone else, but, then again I seriously do not believe the person is human. He is demon possessed, which led me to the question about the demons begging Jesus not to send them to the abyss, to send them into the swine, then the pigs ran into a river and drown. So either way, it ended that story.
But I know that God holds ALL justice and couldn’t help but notice in the case of Ariel Castro and a few others how fast that justice comes. My soul screams justice and deliverance for the oppressed, wounded, and hurt and yet if that is not carefully tempered with the word of God, the need for seeing that justice come to pass can quite easily turn into a bad case of running a marathon with scissors and that will help no one.
So with a weeks worth of murder, mayhem, and just sick twisted cruelty which also included a story of a Tennessee man who was the caregiver of his seventy-nine year old cancer stricken mother, decided for some reason that it would be a great idea to beat her to death, a four-month old baby dying after being given Benadryl at daycare, a man arrested for “disciplining” his children with a stun gun, more police dead, a beautiful dog who appeared on someones porch that had his teeth filed down and his tongue cut out, evidently used a dog fighting bait dog ( YES, the end time reign of plagues and judgment on these monsters is starting to sound right on cue, once upon a time I could not understand why the Lord would send such terror, oh believe me, I now understand clearly) more senseless attacks, including one at a club hosting a teen party, ending a twelve-year-old life and I know heaven itself is weeping at the sight of all these things.
Those subjects I can not touch because what am I going to say, that will even be hopeful or thought-provoking?
It all ends with the scripture in which God tells us that those who show mercy will be shown mercy and those who have shown no mercy will be given judgement without mercy, so the full force of an angry, Holy God pouring out on peoples heads needs no human intervention or explanation.
The story I did choose to go with, that we can all pray about and think about is this one. Most have seen it or heard about it, my husband enlightened me to it while reading his CNN news feed.
A mother (?) decided to embarrass, beat, terrorize, and humiliate her sixteen year old daughter live on Facebook. Here is this woman in a cami top and tight pink shorts up to her butt, slapping and verbally bashing her daughter for what she had posted online, while having someone else film her beating this child.
Like, Hello? What are you wearing yourself there? Queen Mother?
This poor child is trying to cover her face from the hits and this goes on for five minutes and then this person (and I use that term very loosely) takes the camera, FIXES HER HAIR, and tells everyone to send it viral.
Pretty obvious to know what that was all about, get some attention by beating her kid and acting like she is so bad.
Love to see her live feed taking on someone who hits back! This girl was left in the corner whimpering as her mother(?) proudly proclaims that there would be more posts to come.
My heart broke for this girl and my heart breaks for the sadness of just how many are treated like this by those who are supposed to encourage them and protect them and help them deal in the right way with the changes in their lives and all the peer pressure they endure.
What really kills me is the mindless idiots that are complimenting her and saying god bless her, I did not capitalize that because GOD WOULD NEVER,EVER BLESS THAT!
They like to try to change Him and His thoughts to fit in with their own sick behaviour, as a justification attempt.
Jesus whom allowed himself to be humiliated, stripped, and ridiculed SO WE WOULD NOT BE.
Jesus who taught us to turn the other cheek, not to attack a grown up who attacks us first.
Jesus who said that it would be better to have a millstone hung around your neck and drowned AS TO HURT ONE OF HIS LITTLE ONES.
Jesus who lined all the naysayers out when Mary cried at His feet and when the woman accused of adultery was brought to Him.
And now they want to insist that He is okay with slapping around on your kid or anyone else or even animals for that matter.
They DO NOT KNOW HIM nor do they know anything about Him.
But they will soon discover His thoughts on the subject for themselves and in the meantime they will reap what they have sown and be judged by their own judgment so maybe someone can live feed us them being beaten and talked to like trash.
Well, I am obviously getting dangerously close to running with those scissors on this but these people really bring out something unpleasant in many of us and I know I am not the only one that is enraged by it.
I know that as the scripture states when someone is saved and comes back into the household of God, that the ANGELS IN HEAVEN REJOICE, they are so happy that they REJOICE at our salvation. I know the tears that they surely cry as they watch the senseless cruelty on earth.
They cry as humans and animals and all the living are being hurt and wounded. And I also know this is the reason for the thirty minutes of silence which will happen in heaven as the Lord prepares His judgment and return upon earth.
They are praying and weeping for US, they are weeping for the hurt, and oppressed. They are praying for those who have been stubborn, prideful, and self-willed to admit that they need a Saviour. They are praying about the blood of the innocent that covers the earth and the price that blood will cause the wicked to pay.
But to deal with it as humans, while on this earth requires understanding and faith in God.
The beating is really the lesser of the damage done here, the shame, the humiliation that was caused and the painful memories that will last that child a lifetime and without divine intervention the pain trying to deal with that damage will cost her.
Shame, even the word is unpleasant, we have all felt shame, that feeling that starts in your stomach and somehow covers your face as if to show the world that you are lesser than they. That you have messed up and now you are fit to be placed in the village stocks for the villagers to gaze upon and throw things at.
It is MORE than any emotion, it is a snare that Satan uses to cover his victims, think about the term often used “shame ON you”.
Shame is worn and once the initial episode of that shame has been forgotten by those that “put it on you” that shame IS STILL THERE, it is in your mind and affects everything you do.
Because our first instinct is try get it off of us. To hide it, so no one will see “it” that we can function and be accepted while deep down inside, we are still covered in humiliation and hurt, which can also turn to some serious rage. If you doubt that, think about stories of bullied teens and abused children who have finally took all that they can take and become violent.
And as much as I hate to quote anything from the world, it can best be summed up with some lyrics from an old rock song, “till you end up like a dog that has been beat too much, and spend half your life just trying to cover it up”. That is what shame does and it DOES NOT belong to us.
It is a snare like all the other traps that try to convince you that you can never “belong” to the kingdom of God, when actually you DO belong.
That is why all these things have been set against you, to try to prevent you from knowing your identity in Christ.
When I started feeling prompted in my writing ministry to share certain things about my own pain, it was hard, because none of us want to feel like people will run from us or that we are “damaged”.
The the biggest lie told to us by the enemy or our human “enemies”, (the ones who intentionally make us feel embarrassed and ashamed) is that because we have been mistreated that somehow it is our fault, that we caused it.
The truth is evil ALWAYS calls itself good and it always pretends to be right and that is why these particular things damage our spirit and only God can remove it.
But once God gave me reassurance that even if it helped one person overcome and to know it is really, really okay that He has seen it all anyway and that He is never going to look us with the contempt we may have been subjected to, but He looks us with mercy and love and ONLY HE can take away the reproach of shame.
There is nothing, nothing we can do, no drugs, no drinking, and there is not enough therapy in the world to take off what can only removed on spiritual level.
I have painfully learned that being saved was only my beginning, I spent almost thirty years trying to forget and just live with a broken soul, and discovered that once I allowed Jesus to take care of that, when I allowed Him to “look” at all that was broken, smashed, and chained up in shame that it would be the beginning of a process of healing, dealing with all those unpleasant emotions that still, made me who I am, exactly who He knew I would be.
Not always good, but still, me.
We are over-comers by our testimony and the hardest for me to ever overcome, which He had to divinely get me through was having been held over a fire with the threat of being burned alive, I tell you when you’re a little kid, there is nothing that will define your self-worth quite like that.
I am sure that once knowing that, many found my fire symbol very disturbing, believe me I asked myself that question, but you know what? For me, the fire is VICTORY. The whole deal with that was this, I was specifically told that “the devil comes and takes “bad” people to hell” and you are threw in a fire, so I spent most of my life really, really believing that the devil CONTROLS who goes to hell and that I was pretty much all ready done for.
So imagine when I received the baptism of fire and learned through scripture that “GOD IS a consuming fire”.
Satan NEVER controlled hell or fire, he is cold as ice and WILL BE IN HELL, Hell is RESERVED FOR HIM AND HIS ANGELS!
After serving Christ many years and receiving my calling I couldn’t help but notice something, if the enemy made certain that I would be terrified of it and believe that he controlled it, than obviously there was a reason he wanted to make sure I would never, ever go near it.
Once I realized that, I KNEW the fire is to be embraced, not earthly fire, but the fire of God because I know, I know who really controls it and I know WHO pulled me out of it and WHOSE arms held me and let my soul know without a doubt that I never had to be afraid of that awful place again.
This is good to remember when you deal with what has been set a stumbling block in your path, there is a definite reason he chooses what he chooses to attempt to destroy you and usually you will find it is tied into the calling that GOD PLACED ON YOUR LIFE BEFORE YOU WERE EVEN BORN.
Read that for yourself in Romans 8:29,30, you will see things in a different light.
Shame comes “on us” in many forms, words and actions of others, being mocked and laughed at because of our looks or clothes,or our speech, it can come many ways but it comes and it is the most dangerous snare of them all.
So whatever you may have been hurt by, shamed with, and are still trying to overcome I want to encourage you.
Jesus CAN take it completely away, the memory may hurt but that feeling, the shame WILL be completely erased from your mind, your soul, and your life. I believe that if I could show you just a little of my “shame” you can surely show yours to Jesus.
You NEVER have to tell a human anything but you can share your most painful wound with Him and I promise, once you do, He will heal you and remove those heavy chains from your soul.
He does NOT laugh at you, your pain or your humiliations. Actually this is what the word says about Him.
ISAIAH: 50:6 ” I GAVE my back to the smitters (those who struck), and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair:
I HID NOT MY FACE FROM SHAME AND SPITTING.” He suffered THIS to remove it from us! Trust Him, let Him take it away.
PSALM 25:2,3: “O my God, I TRUST IN THEE: LET ME NOT BE ASHAMED: let not mines enemies triumph over me. Yea, let none that wait upon thee be ashamed: let them that be ashamed which transgress (deal treacherously) without cause.”
PHILIPPIANS 1:20: ” According to my earnest expectations and MY HOPE, that IN NOTHING I SHALL BE ASHAMED…”
1 PETER 4:16: ” But if any man suffer as a Christian, let him NOT BE ASHAMED; but let him glorify God on this behalf.”
JOEL 2:26,27: “And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: AND MY PEOPLE SHALL NEVER BE ASHAMED.
and ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND NONE ELSE: AND MY PEOPLE SHALL NEVER BE ASHAMED.”
ISAIAH 25:8: “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God WILL WIPE AWAY TEARS FROM OFF ALL FACES; AND THE REBUKE (embarrassment and shame) OF HIS PEOPLE SHALL HE TAKE AWAY FROM OFF ALL THE EARTH: FOR THE LORD HATH SPOKEN IT.”
So many other wonderful scriptures of God’s love and mercy, and His cleansing power that truly washes it all away.
So today if you are struggling with these issues, turn to Him, REMEMBER the scripture said he did not hide His face from it and you have His promise that He will never embarrass or hurt you.
Please pray that eyes will be opened, that people will realize this is NOT the way to prove anything.
Pray that those who are mortified with shame, which literally means unable to move, crippled by that shame will be touched of the Lord to leap as never before and pray that the ears who are only hearing harsh, damning words will hear the soft whisper so much greater that they ARE loved, they are accepted and that they are NEVER ever to be ashamed.
Φλογιζω Σαλπιζω NBJ 2016
I chose this song because of the testimony of the lead singer. so powerful and so free.
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
Lemonade, the classic, refreshing summer time drink, pretty groovy during a monster heat wave, like the one many of us have going on right now. Even better pink, in a pretty glass with a ton of ice.
Fruit flavored drinks, on the other hand, not quite as refreshing, for two main reasons:
#1. THEY CONTAIN NO REAL FRUIT. THEY ARE OF NO REAL VALUE TO YOUR BODY.
#2. THEY ARE PRODUCED WITH FAKE SUGAR TO HIDE THE NASTY CHEMICAL POISON THAT THEY ARE REALLY MADE OF.
I, myself prefer an old-fashioned iced coffee, not the jacked up sissy versions sold nationwide because delicious or not all I care about it REAL. I suppose, all things considered, fruit flavored drinks pair pretty nicely with candy coating.
Maybe that is why the churches are running over with sticky, sweet-smelling fluids to be given to those who seek and desire and desperately NEED the water of life.
When you need real refreshing, they just aren’t going to do the job, and the sickly sweet, nasty aftertaste is just going to leave you more thirsty than you were before for something real.
Sure, they are “sweet” sure they “care” but only to the point of convenience for them. After that, you can just choke on that sweetness they have just poured down your throat, they really don’t care, nor will they.
Talking about fake, artificial friends and “brethren”, definitely NOT talking about the world. I could have people actually write testimonies to their own experiences with this, because IT IS so common. That is truly, truly a sad statement.
But who cares? Seriously, who cares? They don’t. The world has no stake in it and would never come in if they had a clue as to how people are really treated once they are down. So who cares? Well, I tell you, one that does, the same one who cares about everything else:
“Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the GREEN herb.
Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily shalt thou be fed. Delight thyself in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as light, and thy judgment ( justice for you) as the noonday.
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: Fret not thyself because of him (any person) who prospereth in HIS way, BECAUSE of the man ( person, male or female) who bringeth WICKED DEVICES (schemes) to pass.
Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise (way) to do evil. For evildoers shall be cut off: But those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.
For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea. thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth ( back biting and two facing ). The Lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming. ( he knows the wicked shall soon fall and laughs at their attempts to harm others).
The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay (kill) such as be of upright conversation (conduct). Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken.
Wait upon the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt SEE IT. I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a GREEN bay tree. Yet he passed away, and lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.” PSALM 37:1-15,34-36
What I want to point out about these verses is this: IT APPEARS as though the wicked have the upper hand, that is why they are spreading THEMSELVES and the green being that they ARE thriving while doing so. We are not to envy the position they have weaved themselves into. We are not to “fret”, you know worrying and staying upset because of what they have cost us, or question whether or not they will answer to God for those actions, or lack thereof.
They hurt the innocent, they backbite, spread lies and try to destroy others but as you see, God laughs, HE LAUGHS while they are running about pretending to give a “cold drink” to the little ones, when the poisonous fruit flavoring clearly proves what is really being served.
While they may seem to grow and prosper, they will soon dry and wither away. We all know people like this, the world is full of them, and that should be no surprise because after all it is the world. The true testing of this comes when these people are supposed to be your friends and you can really get into what Jesus said with this, If someone takes what is yours DO NOT ask for it back.
And we all know what a “friend” Jesus had in Judas and those are exactly those of which I speak. He also commands us pray for those who hurt us, USE us, and PERSECUTE us, and SPEAK EVIL AGAINST US. He tells us to forgive our brothers and sisters in Him. But you know what? These people ARE NOT REALLY our brethren! THEY ARE THE EQUIVALENT TO FRUIT FLAVORED DRINKS.
The reason we are to do good to them is that in by doing so, we are “heaping coals of hell fire on their heads”!
People who use other people and just pretend to care for them in order to gain whatever it is that they are after are not of God. I don’t care how often they go to church, what amount of tithes they pay, or how helpful they may seem or whatever else they can produce as a sign of being “green” in the fruitful sense. I guess that is where ceasing from anger comes in pretty handy.
I just can not stand fake Christians and I would rather have someone curse me to my face then pretend to be something they are not. I respect people who can look you in the eye and tell you the truth,EVEN if that truth is that they would love to see you six feet under, not hide their hate behind lies and drama and the beauty in it all in waiting upon the Lord, trusting in the Lord, resting in the Lord, knowing that soon the truth you know of them will also be made known to all.
So if life “gives you lemons” wait on the sweetness of the Lord, even though the base fruit may TASTE bitter and unpleasant, and very undesirable, as are many of the things that we must go through in life, once the Lord adds his sweetness to the mix that lemonade made from those awful lemons will be much sweeter and refreshing than the watered down fruit flavored drink you had been given because even though the lemons began as bitter, The end product WILL HAVE BEEN PRODUCED WITH REAL FRUIT!
Be Blessed and stay cool! Seriously, it is really hot out there and go for the real lemonade!!!It will keep you cooler and help you keep your cool;) !
Φλογιζω Σαλπιζω NBJ 2016
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
“ And WHOSOEVER shall offend (PUT A STUMBLINGBLOCK IN THEIR PATH) one of theselittle ones that believe in me, IT IS BETTER FOR HIM (WOULD BE BETTER FOR THEM) THAT A MILLSTONE WERE HANGED ABOUT HIS NECK, AND HE WERE CAST INTO THE SEA” Mark 9:42
“Then said he to his disciples, It is impossible but that offences (stumbling blocks) will come, (it IS impossible for offences NOT to come) but WOE UNTO HIM (those) WHOM THROUGH THEY COME!
IT WERE BETTER for him (would be better for those who set the stumbling blocks) that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and cast into the sea, THEN HE SHOULD OFFEND ONE OF THESE LITTLE ONES. (CAUSE SOMEONE TO STUMBLE) LUKE 17:1,2
Stumbling block, quite an interesting word, always reminds me of setting a trap and chasing someone down a preplanned path in hope that they will fall across the wooden beam that had been placed there and carefully hidden under brush.
It actually comes from a Hebrew word that when translated into the Greek is “skandalon”, which in turns translates into our modern English word SCANDAL.
What a better way to ruin a persons reputation, self-esteem, and life as they know it that to create a scandal about them, and of course completely behind their back.
Jesus is talking about those who would intentionally cause his children to fall and be hurt as they try to walk on their path with Him. As we see He is not fan of it and is very point-blank in what His judgment is concerning the vengeance that will be suffered at His hand by those who would do this.
The Bible has so many wonderful scriptures on how we are to treat others, such as “love your neighbor as yourself” “carry each others burdens”, and even if we see someone struggling in a temptation, we are to help that person, without them being ostracized, belittled and or creating a SCANDAL about them.
And to reject, ridicule someone and to publicize any ones failure is punishable by falling into the SAME snare and that is indeed Bible.
What about someone who SAYS that they love a person and secretly bad mouths them and tells others that they are a bad influence and goes over and above anything normal to keep their physical person interjected between this person and their friends with the constant pretense that they are “protecting” them, even demanding that the other person not be spoken too or included in any way and yet, they LOVE them.
What if the ostracized person is a teen? Nothing like bullying, even better when the bully is a grown up or at least is according to their age?
Just as satan invites himself into places that he is not welcome, just as when he stopped by in the Book of Job, as the sons were worshipping God, just to see whom he may devour.
That’s why he sends people to create scandals, to separate the lambs from the flock, when they are hurt, and shunned, he convinces them that they are a bad person and that everyone hates them, left abandoned by the flock, he then can move in for the kill, laying waste the path that God had preordained them to walk in His Kingdom.
No shocker that Jesus’ judgment is that it would be better for the one who causes it to be drowned than to meet with the fate that he will deal to them.
But God is faithful and he keeps our mouths shut and sends us help and His reassurance that vengeance is His and we are in no way to repay evil for evil. But when it comes from someone who pretends to be all good and all love, and tries to set it up as though everyone else is just crazy, well, God had someone pray for me and these are the scriptures I was given when I was recently dealing with a situation:
Proverbs 26:21-28: As COALS are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so IS a CONTENTIOUS MAN (PERSON) TO KINDLE STRIFE. The WORDS of a TALEBEARER ARE as WOUNDS, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.
BURNING LIPS and a WICKED HEART ARE LIKE a potsherd covered with silver dross.
He that HATETH, DISSEMBLETH (DISGUISES) WITH HIS LIPS, AND LAYING UP DECEIT WITHIN HIM;
When he speaketh FAIR (TRIES TO TELL YOU HOW MUCH THEY LOVE YOU), BELIEVE HIM NOT: FOR THERE ARE SEVEN ABOMINATIONS IN HIS HEART.
WHOSE HATRED IS COVERED BY DECEIT, HIS WICKEDNESS SHALL BE SHOWN BEFORE THE WHOLE CONGREGATION.
WHOSO DIGGETH A PIT SHALL FALL INTO THEREIN: AND HE THAT ROLLETH A STONE, IT WILL RETURN (ROLL BACK ON) UPON HIM.
A LYING TONGUE HATETH THOSE THAT ARE AFFLICTED (CRUSHED) BY IT; AND A FLATTERING MOUTH WORKETH RUIN.”
Pretty good advice, they will fall into their own pit, so if you know someone who is tempted to spread rumors, gossip, and just try to ruin someone else, here is some more Biblical advice to share with them, that may make them think twice:
ROMANS 14:13 : “Let us NOT therefore JUDGE one another any more: BUT JUDGE THIS rather, THAT NO MAN PUT A STUMBLING BLOCK OR AN OCCASION TO FALL IN HIS BROTHERS WAY.”
And if you are being bullied or suspect someone else is, as in my situation, pray about and keep praying till you get your answer, it is hard especially for kids to talk about and God WILL let you know. I promise.
Never cover for a bully, they ARE NOT your friend and their only desire is to hurt you and see you miserable, whatever their motive may be. And as our scripture shows when they say the love you and have your best interest in mind, DON’T BELIEVE THEM. Real friends may have to tell us something sometimes for our own good that we may not want to hear, but they do it with love and they never hover over us and control us and every move that we make.
Love is NOT harsh and Love will NEVER hurt you or say mean, unkind things about you. Love will never spread rumors, or tell lies to control your friendships. That is Not love.
That is the devil and as the T Mac’s song goes, he needs to “Go on, get his junk out of here” NO ONE NEEDS IT and NO ONE WANTS IT. Talk to someone who you can trust or call a help number. Don’t spend another second being the victim of someone’s insecurities.
So you really have to size up the stumbling block, if it something small, maybe you can solve by just cutting off all contact with the bully, try to avoid them if at all possible and when it is not possible always have another person with you, maybe give up social media for a while or close out an account and reopen using maybe your middle name or initials that the bully would not be aware of, and limit contact with anyone who could give them information about you but ALWAYS let a friend or trusted person KNOW what you are doing and why. That protects you.
If is a really big stumbling block and they are threatening you or ruining your reputation, it may be necessary to take legal action, there is no shame in that, that is why we have laws in place to protect us and I know, I’ve had to stand up to an abusive boyfriend kind of bully as a very young woman, I know it is scary and it is hard but you will be glad you did, and my only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner. People who threaten you count on that fear to keep you held there, don’t give them that. And if you know someone who is being bullied, you be strong for them and help them and let others know what is going on so that they can get help. Remember when you are afraid TRUST in HIM. Love and peace to you in Jesus’ name.
N. Brown Johnson 2016
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
“Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death.” Mark 13:12
“For the son dishounerth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law: A man’s enemies are the men born of his own house (a person’s own family)” Micah 7:6
“A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” Proverbs 17:17
Fair to say these are some serious warnings of ye olde family unit making frequent appearances at The Drama Ville Dinner Theater.
Recorded in the Bible it started at the beginning, Genesis chapter 4, and it started with Cain the firstborn of Adam and Eve and of course the older brother to Abel.
Cain became jealous and angry because God accepted Abel’s offering but not his, Cain had offered what he wanted to offer not what was acceptable as an offering, instead of heeding God’s warning to him, he let his anger simmer and steep until it hit the boiling point.
Genesis 4:8 ” And Cain talked with Able his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in a field, that Cain rose up against Able and slew him.”
He talked him into going into the field with him, with the intention of killing him the entire time. Again leading me to believe that Able, like Joseph just did not have a clue to this secret hatred was until it was too late.
We know the story of Joseph and how he was one of two sons bore to his father Jacob by his choice wife Rachel and he was half-brother to the ten bore by Leah, the wife that he had been tricked into marrying.
Now maybe the bad blood was a direct result of that and who truly knows the effect that all the strife and hatred between these sister wives had on the ten as they grew up, who knows the discussions they may have heard and who knows if their ultimate hatred for Joseph was born out of their own feelings of inadequacy because we do know Joseph was the favorite son.
But we also know that it was because Joseph was not anything like them,he was like his mother, he was gentle and mild, it was because he was pleasant to his father.
Maybe it was just the sowing of the tares with the wheat. I really don’t think Joseph understood that his brothers seriously hated him, I believe that in his innocent thinking and his young age that he just did not get it and when he shared his dream, satan then used that to push them over the edge, he was just a teen-aged boy sharing what in his eyes was the coolest dream ever, we know that his Dad rebuked him for this because being older, wiser he knew that the others hated him.
Genesis 37:18: “And when they saw him afar off,even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.”
He did not have a clue, but after they had thrown him in a pit to drown (only there was no water in the well ) they sat around laughing and eating lunch and then changed their mind and sold him as a slave, he finally, painfully, understood.
Selling Joseph forewarned of the entire Hebrew nation being enslaved to Egypt and many today live enslaved in emotional prisons built by the hands of their family members and built on their spiritual blood The Bible really doesn’t detail Jesse thoughts toward David but we can read between the lines, he is young, writes poetry, plays music, the creative type, so he is given the job of watching over the flock.
David was not even considered by his father when Samuel called for the sons to presented and that just about said it all. And we know when push come to shove and all the men of Israel was cowering down before Goliath, Davids true character started shining through:
1 Samuel 17:26,28: “And David spake to the men who stood by him, saying, What shall be done unto the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God? And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why comest thou down hither?and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thy heart; for thou hast come down that thou mayest see the battle”
Eliab’s entire personality revealed!
The oldest ones seem to have the biggest issues, the parable of the prodigal son even has this theme, the angry older brother. Always angry because they feel they did not get the attention they deserve. He was angry because he saw something in David that he knew he did not possess in himself, courage in the face of a giant.
He wanted to line David out and “put him in his place” in front of the other men as a show of bravado, he could still tell off little brother there.
Why are you here? Why were you born? Why do you have to be here anyway?
Sounds like some of the things many ears have heard. Who is watching your few sheep, just got to prove whatever the younger has watch over is not just quite as good or meaningful.
Now he has to let everyone know what he thinks about David with accusations of pride, (remember the accuser of the brethren, one of satan’s many name’s, well he loves nothing more than to accuse you through your brethren!) and of course he had to give a reason for good show.
And I know David put up with this on a regular basis, check out his answer: 1 Samuel 17:29; ” And David said,What have I now done? (what did I do now?) Is there not a cause?”
Breakdown, Cain was angry and jealous because of Abel’s offering being accepted by Father God. his only response for his action was “Am I my brother’s keeper?” In his eyes, his little brother was not his problem and when he was called on his deed, he only cared about saving his own neck.
God was with Joseph, Joseph named his firstborn son Ephraim, meaning “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction” and giving us all hope in the fact that what is meant for harm God will use for good.
Joseph’s brother’s were angry and resentful over his relationship with their father.
But he forgave his brothers but the cosmic repercussion of it all still sent an entire race into slavery for over four hundred years.
We do see that David fared pretty well, one whom the whole group of the thought was no more than a singing pretty boy is still considered one of the most fierce warrior Kings to ever have existed and whatever became of his brother Eliab, I haven’t a clue, but David’s throne is forever established of God.
Goliath laughed at David, mocking him, mocking his size and asking did he come against him with sticks as if he were a dog, more or less, sticks were something to beat something else with, but in the giant’s eyes it was no match for him, but the stones, the stones could break him, because just as that stone guided by the hand of God himself took that giant to the ground enabling David to take off the laughing giant’s head with his own weapon, God is our rock and He always wins.
Maybe you have been or continue to go through these “family affairs”, but please hear me, just as with Cain and Joseph’s brothers, people can have far darker feelings toward us then we want to accept. It is hard to walk away from family member’s especially when subjected to the good old brainwashing like Eliab tried to use on David.
They will always blame you, they will always accuse you because Satan is the ultimate older brother, to the children of God, he was created first, we were created in God’s image, he is older than mankind and he is jealous and angry because you can have a relationship with the Father that is now lost to him forever.
Giants even bigger than Goliath can be born of these relationships,so see it for what it is. Please stay with me, next time I want to give a boatload of scripture, God’s word to help with these things and take the heads off some giants, we’ll start it with a little “Blood Transfusion”!
Φλογιζω/ NBJ 2015 Original post date: 11/12/2015
REVISITED 11/17//2021, I wanted to revisited several of these posts, as I had originally written them to address the topic dysfunctional and toxic relationships and the dread it can make of holidays approaching.I will be revisiting this series over the course of this week, but several are linked below, which link to the others in that particular series.
I do pray if you are wrestling with this dilemma that these posts will be not only a comfort, but an encouragement to you. Jesus is the Prince of Peace and peace is exactly what he wants for you, so have your joy in a relationship with him and do not allow yourself to be treated as less than the precious life that he created you to be. Φλογιζω NBJ/2021 Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
We all know the old saying about sticks and stones, and what a wonderful gesture to encourage that words will do no harm.
But sticks and stones will break many things and words can shatter hearts.
This is going to be one of those not quite so comfortable subjects that so truly needs addressed.
For some who grew up in TRUE Christian homes of sibling love, and harmony, I salute you and I am happy for what you do not understand but for the rest and the majority we’re gonna deal with bad blood, the questionable point when sibling rivalry and normal competitiveness between family members turns not so friendly and the blood of your truest most formidable enemy is shared through your own veins and the hatred that pierces your heart through the words the Bible refers to as “of a piercing of a sword” and they are much worse than the sword of an enemy because we unfortunately have a built-in pack need to belong, fit in and be accepted.
Even in the most together families, there is usually one or two that have issues with each other that affect the entire family.
I have seriously thought about whether this is a bigger issue for males or females, because there are stories of males bullied and pushed a little too far by abusive older brothers and yet for females with one or sometimes two misogynistic siblings the damage done can far outweigh the normal relationship with the “good” siblings and this pattern can be seen over and over, and often traced back through a complete bloody bloodline of bad blood between “brothers” for generations. It is a story almost as old as time, I think it goes back even farther than Cain and Abel, I think it goes back to the war in heaven, the rebellion of Lucifer as he took one-third of the servants of heaven with him.
His jealousy and rage and as now his accusations against the children of God, so clearly seen in the verbal abuse in domestic situations and his need to attempt to control those around him so crystal clear in the lives of those who wish to control others through this kind of abuse which can turn violent and physical at the drop of a hat.
Our biggest obstacle to overcome, the name itself, “Domestic”, what does that even mean? Tame violence? Tame belittling?
Homegrown heartache and as long as it’s not a stranger cussing you out then it is just domestic, no big deal, just deal with it. That is what it means. As Christians we are taught by Christ to love those who hate us and pray for those that use us and bless those who curse us, but I truly DO NOT believe that he meant for us to be the family door mat or the emotional whipping boy who hears it if the sun doesn’t shine the right way.
The Bible also teaches to “GIVE NO PLACE TO THE DEVIL” and to resist him and he will flee from you, there are countless scriptures I give with this series as proof that we do not have to have contact with them and to stay away from violent, mean people who only want to hurt you.
Through time women have stayed with abusive husbands because they made a vow that it was forever, but again why on earth would Jesus take all those stripes, all that pain and die on that cross to save us, so we then could live life with someone of the devil that beats on us, either with fists or words? NEVER going to get me to buy that story!
Now, we have to deal with family, like abusive husbands only you can’t divorce them but I tell you what you can do, SEE it for what it is. When we don’t have Christ they have us locked into their game, an ongoing test of the wills to see who is “strongest” or who will bend first, it is like running with wolves, they consider tears a weakness and when your down the whole pack turns on you. That is what Satan wants. His objective is to poison your blood with the same poison he manged to inject into theirs, probably through the same sadistic,systematic mind games and through the endless hail of heartless words and of course it just wouldn’t work without the endless, never-ending accusation that it is really YOU! Because YOU think your better than them and all the words designed to instill guilt (that does not belong to you) and play on that lack of self-worth that has already been successfully driven into your brain and whatever else is thrown at you, he hopes to beat any gentleness,or compassion, and anything remotely decent out of you until he has YOU become exactly what your abuser is and that is his plan and that is scary.
But once we accept Jesus they want even more to destroy you because now they have no one to play with since you are a new creature and are working toward crucifying your flesh, so now the enemy has a double motive.
Trap #1. If he can get you to break and hit back and attack them out of the same pain and anger that held you in bondage before, if you are not very careful he can make you fall spiritually, if you are passive-aggressive and he can mange to get you into attack mode he can have you being the aggressor or getting so angry just wanting it to stop that you will cause more damage than can be undone.
Trap #2 The old blood is thicker than water routine and convince you that it IS YOUR JOB to get them saved and that if you are just nice to them and tolerate them and put up with their abuse, you will be leading them to God and if you fail to let them hang out with you wasted and treat you like dirt than you are not being very kind and if they die they will die lost and it will be YOUR FAULT! Not true! We can’t get anyone saved only Jesus can do that! We can be a light but when someone is high, belligerent, and mean, raising Hades on you, how can they see that light through their own anger? Soft answers do turn away wrath but once you give that answer turn yourself away also. Jesus did not fool with demons, he did not carry on conversations with them, he cast them out and there are times in our life that we must see these things for what they are, traps, demonic traps that the enemy is using to try to KEEP us in the same bondage that God delivered us from!
Jesus wants us to have peace and joy unspeakable and delivers us from all fear,and we must not allow the enemy to convince us that blood is blood and to be a “good” Christian requires us to endure these things. So please just say No to that ingrained false belief that by letting them torment you that your are somehow helping their soul and that one day they will love you, accept it for what it is and don’t fall for the traps. Never tolerate a behavior from a family member that you would not tolerate from a stranger and you sure wouldn’t keep going back to the same store that you got called a useless hussy in a week before, (of course that is a language clean up) now would you?
Next time we’ll start making Biblical sense of this, stories of what others went through and how to put our trust in God and allow him to heal us and be all that we need.
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
“But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, TOSSED with waves: for the WIND was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night (the blackest, darkest hour) JESUS WENT UNTO THEM, WALKING ON THE SEA.” And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they CRIED OUT FOR (because of) FEAR. But STRAIGHTWAY (Immediately) JESUS SPAKE unto them, saying,BE OF GOOD CHEER(have courage) IT IS I ( I AM ); BE NOT AFRAID.” Matthew 14:25-27 Through the journey of this life many times we find that we are that ship, the waves crashing and tossing us about, unable to catch balance tossed with that horrible great wind that is blowing down on us in the worst possible hour. The fourth watch, when we have been tossed by the raging waves of trails of life and circumstances that we have no control over. Trails and troubles that comes just as a part of this life for us and for all others. But when you add that horrid wind, that cold, fierce blowing of the fury of the enemy, because he loves to kick you when your down and it is always during last stretch of the night. He thinks of it as this, you are already weak, tired, and completely exhausted, just worn out from the hours you have already battled through the dark and he knows if he can get you to lose focus that this night is never going to end, he will destroy your faith in God. Notice Jesus came in that hour, Jesus knew where they were, he knew what they were battling and he knew at what point they would break IF he did not step in. Being in an exhaustive state it is hard to see whose hand is whose and this was Jesus coming to their rescue but they were so mentally drained that they were afraid that he too was more trouble headed their way. When they cried out (as we cry out to Him) it was then that he said IT IS I, and encouraged their faith. Peter was so distraught, he needed reassurance, just as we too sometimes need to know that He is aware of what we are going through, that He really is there, and that He really is going to take us through the night. “And Peter answered and him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me to come to thee on the water. And he said, Come, And when Peter was down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. BUT when he SAW THE WIND boisterous (violent) HE WAS AFRAID, he cried, saying Lord, SAVE ME.” Matthew 14:28-30 Jesus had given him that reassurance that he was aware and was completely on the scene, and at the comforting voice of his Lord he began to walk on those horrible waves that had held him as their terrorized prisoner only moments earlier. In life, we sometimes feel like we can’t catch a break. We think we see the shimmer of the morning starting to break through and then the darkness only returns with even more blackness and wind howling. We feel like as soon as things are finally looking up something happens and it all crashes in on us. “And IMMEDIATELY JESUS STRETCHED FORTH HIS HAND, AND CAUGHT HIM, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, Wherefore didst thou ( why did you) doubt? And when they were come into the ship, THE WIND CEASED.” Matthew 14:28-30 So many troubled waters, waves of sickness, waves of financial woes, waves of worry about our children and their futures, waves of family issues, the winds of past hurts and unresolved heartaches and the stone cold blow of lack of closure to doors of the past. It all rocks, it tosses, and that wind will blow. But Jesus came through in that darkest most tempestuous hour, even though they thought they couldn’t make it, HE KNEW when they couldn’t and by allowing Peter to walk on those waves, he was really showing him something. People are so mean about Peter, they are always pointing out the fact that he temporarily slipped, but how many of them have ever been in Peter’s sandals? We can look at others and think well, this or that, but until we have truly, truly been in their shoes we don’t know how we would react, but Jesus does and he knows what we can handle has nothing to do with what we FEEL like we can handle. Storms to weather, giants to fight, crosses to bear, and no one likes it. I have yet to meet a Christian who jumps up in Church and shouts “Woo, hoo bring on the storm!” I have fought some hellacious giants, there are battles that I am not sure that I will win in this earth but I know if I hold on and keep the faith, that even if it is at the feet of the Lord in New Jerusalem that the battle will have been won. There have been times when warnings to church has come that storms were brewing and I’d be like, please, please no, no more storms. We all go through it and some are worse than others and there is always someone else whose storm makes ours look like a sunny morn. I never will forget the testimony of a certain preacher, I love to hear him, he straight shoots, preaches hell, fire, brimstone, mingled with love and compassion and all with a comedic edge that can make you dig where he is coming from without making you want to hide under the pew. He often made remarks about his childhood that confused me, because his Mom is an awesome woman and I couldn’t figure out how all this happened to him. One night he told us what God had brought him from, he had been born to stoned parents who had a house full of kids, and kept having kids, he told us about watching his baby sibling die, believing the baby may have frozen to death because there was a hole in the ceiling with snow actually falling in, and he kept a crew cut all the time and had a very visible scar on his head, he went on to tell us that he received that after opening a can of food without permission and being hit with the still attached to the can, jagged top. When he and his siblings rescue came, he was eleven and his Mom later told me that he was barely dressed and wearing a ladies top. And to know him now and to know that God stepped in and changed this child’s life and fulfilled HIS PURPOSE for him, placing him with a good family that would teach him of a God that loved him despite what that horrible storm he had lived in for eleven years had tried to convince him of. Don’t try to wait out the storm to pursue the things of God for your life. The young man who asked Jesus if he could “bury his father” before following him was answered by “Let the dead bury their dead; but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.” It will not always easy, but sometimes we have to stop fighting with things that are dead, and trying to change things that will never be changed, and accept them as such, and go on in our walk with the Lord. Sometimes we have to take what we have and work with it, even if we think we are lacking what we “need” to get the job done. In the story of Elisha, we are introduced to him as he is plowing a field having only eleven oxen, now we know that can’t be done and that is why we are told that HE HIMSELF IS THE TWELFTH OXEN! Field needed plowed, he needed an ox, so he did what had to be done. He could have said well, whenever we get another ox, I’ll take care of that field, but he didn’t. So the giant you face is monstrous, the cross is growing might heavy, and that wind is threatening to smash your ship to smithereens, BUTJESUS IS RIGHT THERE. He will slay that giant, He will give you His strength to make that cross lighter to bear, and He will lead you BACK TO SAFETY AND THAT STORM WILL CEASE. Morning will come breaking through and at the end of it all, that little ship will be stronger, having weathered that dreaded storm, it will now be a proven sea worthy vessel, those giants won’t look quite so tall when you know the hand that is stretching out to catch you is the hand that controls it all. Just so someone out there will know, this is NOT what I had planned for today, and He showed me things in this I had never noticed and I feel his presence with it, I will never pretend to know your pain or tell you life will be great, but one day the storm will pass and maybe sooner than you know! I want to leave you with this, quote it, memorize and keep it to your heart: Psalm 56:3 : “WHAT TIME I AM AFRAID, I WILL TRUST IN THEE.” May God bless you and keep you, in Jesus’ name. Amen. Φλογιζω/ all rights reserved. NBJ/2015
Awesome song, hope it will encourage you Shared from YouTube
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
“Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?
I raised thee up(awakened) under the apple tree:…” Song of Solomon 7:5
The wilderness the daughters of God have been very acquainted with since the dawn of time. Since the fall of man, the enemy has ensured that we would be considered no more than property and every day countless of us are raped, abused, forced into prostitution and in many countries we are still property at the complete mercy of often unmerciful husbands.
While in other corners of the world, unable to carry lineage names daughters are aborted and others sold into slavery. Christianity of old. Tainted by MEN also seemed to teach that women are inferior but the truth is far from that. My biggest struggle in coming to Christ was this very topic, I was like, Why are women always the bad ones? Misguided teaching of confused or intentionally biased doctrine has kept many away and who could blame them? Many modern women who have been left to support their children completely alone, who have struggled to pay their bills, put food on their tables, educate themselves and their children ,just barely surviving through the world.
And if they happen into the wrong church they will hear that they are of a lesser value to God than their male counterparts. To “fit in” they will need to change everything about themselves and sit down and above all shut up. Even after God had enlightened me to the truth and helped me understand his word, I still had trouble wrapping my head around a few things. I did most of intense studying before my child was school aged, after everyone was asleep and my house cleaned, I would stay up and read until I could not function any longer.
One night I happened upon Judges 19 which in my opinion contains the most disturbing and gruesome story in the entire Bible. It mirrors the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, ironically found in Genesis 19, when Lot had offered his virgin daughters to the deviant, demon possessed pagans, who were demanding he turn over his male visitors to them, “that they may know them” translated, so they could gang rape them.
The Bible clear to point out that Lot offered these girls with a “do whatever you want to them” agreement to try to get them to take them instead of the male visitors.
To break Judges 19 down, a Levite had a concubine, it says she “played the harlot”. I’m not sure how that worked since she was “kept” for that purpose, double standards of the day, which still equate in our culture as the difference between a guy being a “player” and a woman being a “slut”.
Another problem Jesus addressed when he came to earth, he wants two people married, period. Enlightening them to their double standards when they wanted judgment against the adulterous woman, of course it takes two, but they seemed to have forgotten to bring her partner in this sin before the Lord, His answer to them translating to this, if they themselves had no sin, go ahead hit her.
Standing in front of a Holy God they couldn’t do it.
But at the time of Judges, men could have as many women as they wanted but it was never God’s plan. To get on with the story, she went back to her father’s house, so he comes after her to talk her into coming back, finally she agreed, and after being detained several days they went on their way.
He refused to stay anywhere other than lands belonging to the tribes of Israel and insisted on traveling to a city of the tribe of Benjamin, they had nowhere to stay, so an old man invited them to stay with him, pleading that they not stay outside, soon just as with Sodom, there were men at his door demanding he turn over this man to them that they “may know him”.
Picture perfect to Sodom, only lacking the presence of the angels that saved Lot’s daughters. So the old guy offers his daughter and the concubine, again with the agreement to whatever they wanted to them, just do not touch the man.
They refused, they still wanted the man, so the guy just takes the concubine and throws her out to them and they repeatedly gang rape her until the morning and then they let her go.
She makes it to the door of the house where she collapses, she just lies there helplessly until he gets up, opens the door and finds her and he actually tells her quite simply, to get up they have to get going, needless to say she is dead. He dismembers her body into twelve parts and sends a part to each of the tribes and war is waged. It wasn’t that they raped her or that she was dead that bothered him, it was because they destroyed his property.
I read this and I was alone with my shock and absolute horror and knowing the Lord, I just asked “Why, Why are we of so little value?” These “men” would not even try to fend off these monsters, not even try to muster up an ounce of anything remotely resembling courage to fight for themselves.
Forget chivalry, or protection, an ounce of some sort of compassion, but to just offer these women as less than nothing and to do it to save themselves. I just could not understand it.
I do understand that at the time the thought of this being done to men was so unthinkable that they were desperate to prevent it. But they could have tried to prevent it for happening to any of them.
The God I know would never sanction this stuff or ever condone it and I was in tears, and it just hit me to keep reading, the bottom line is this, at the very end of Judges, “In those days there was no king in Israel: Every man did what was right in his own eyes.”
This was never God!
He never put these things in men’s hearts and for years it was falsely taught and still is in many places.
Men still do what is right in their own eyes and only God can make them see the truth. But it is time for the awakening of his daughters.
No matter what false beliefs that women have been brainwashed by, we have to let them know that this is not what Jesus is about. He does not hate women and did not create us to be objects of amusement to fulfill the twisted lusts of men nor to be their gender indentured servants.
If we are ever to see those that are oppressed be saved and free, they have to know the truth about him and who he is and most of all who they are in him.
A forgotten child, much like David, when no one would even waste their time to call him to be presented before Samuel the Prophet, because in their eyes why would a prophet possibly want to speak with someone so unimportant and simple?
A forgotten child from the greatest of tribes, who just happened to be a woman, a sister to the twelve tribes of Israel, a forgotten child that no one bothers to mention because she was not as important as her brothers, or so they thought.
Dinah, the seventh child Leah bore to Jacob, a woman who also a thing or two about pain and substandard treatment, who had been raped and used as a bargaining chip which led to a mass slaughter.
Her bloodline STILL offering an inheritance. because she was one of the tribe.
The most prophetic beauty with Dinah is the meaning of her name, “JUDGEMENT.”
It is awakening time for the sisters, the beautiful, forgotten army who have a straight shot to the heart of the Father.
You are so strong, so powerful, and yet, you do not even know WHO YOU ARE in HIM, and so unaware of your predestined place in this end time end game.
You are the spiritual virgins and maidens forever following to proclaim the majesty, beauty, and holiness of the Kings of Kings.
It is the love and proclamations that Hannah, and Mary, and never forget Mary Magdalene, He came to her first because she needed him the most.
Take your place in the kingdom, it is not going to be accomplished with half an army. The adoration and praises from hearts that have known sorrows and pain that men can never begin to understand.
A relationship to God who will bring justice for others on behalf of the cries of the souls of his daughters. Unlike the time of Judges, unlike the women who are your sisters the world over, who are oppressed and in bondage.
You have access to a King, the King, and The King over heaven, and earth, and the entire universe, He will plead their cause if you bring them before his throne in that secret prayer closet. He will bring justice for those your tears flood the altar for, when you allow your soul to be awakened under that tree, awakened by a love so strong, so powerful, so consuming that you wear that love as a covering for the whole world to see.
“I AM the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among the thorns so is my love among the daughters. as the apple tree among the trees of wood so it my beloved among the sons.
I sat down under his shadow with great delight his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me into the banqueting house and his banner of me was LOVE” Song of Solomon 2:1-4
Translated: KNOW HIM for who HE IS, allow his love to bloom in you, in spite of the valleys and thorns, breathe in his sweetness and lift you up out of those ashes and hide in the secret place of the Most High, under the shadow of his wings, taste the goodness of his salvation and let him bring you into his house of feasting and the love of Jehovah Nissi is his war flag over his daughters and the love is the secret to it all.
Φλογίζω / 02/05/2015. All rights reserved. Rev. Nina BrownJohnson 2015
For later posts in the realm of all things feminine, check these out:
REVISTED:08/01/2019 Because sometimes we just need to be reminded of who Jesus REALLY is and who he has called us to be in him.
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
I love old sayings, people long ago learned lessons and passed that wisdom down to forewarn future generations. Ministers are like front line soldiers discovering what’s in the enemies arsenal and reporting back to the troops what weapon is needed to take them down. Some of the wisest words ever spoken were, “With friends like that, who needs enemies.” As Paul said “when he thought to do good, evil was ever-present with him.” Sometimes it is difficult for us to see just who our real enemies are. Think about it, the Bible says that Satan himself “can transform into an angel of light” and we know that he is well versed in the scripture and loves nothing more than to try to twist the word of God to snare, trap, and pervert us. Genesis 3:1(a) “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made…” and most know this story, through convincing Eve that she really, really wanted this and she should just trust him, it would all be okay, he deceived her into making a decision that we all paid for and Jesus gave his life to repair the damage that “friend” caused. David, not even trying to resist his lust for Bathsheba ( I know it was lust because he had tried to get Uriah to go home, hoping he would sleep with her and think he had fathered the baby and let them all live a lie) when all of his plans failed, he in effect had Uriah “murdered by war” using him to deliver his own death warrant. The wages of sin are death, this brought it down on his entire family. Nathan the Prophet went so far as to deliver the judgment handed down from God that the sword would never leave David’s house. So that voice as the serpent rose again, David’s son Amnon became completely possessed by a spirit of incestuous lust toward his half-sister Tamar. As Satan purposed all this in Amnon’s heart he sent his messenger with just the reassurance Amnon’s flesh needed to act upon that lust. 2 Samuel 13:2,3 ” And Amnon was so vexed (distressed) that he feel sick for his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin; and Amnon thought it hard for him to do anything to her ( knew it was wrong ). But Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shiva David’s brother: and Jonadab was a very subtil man.” His “friend” talked him into raping her, destroying her and filling her brother(his half) Absalom with such hate that it mirrors the rebellion Lucifer led in his attempt to overthrow the Kingdom of Heaven. He had Amnon murdered and led a rebellion against David and died trying to flee David’s army, when his long beautiful hair became caught and tangled on a tree branch leaving him helpless against the sword. Snared and tangled up, some prophetic symbolism in that, what unchecked bitterness and hate will do to us. That is what happens when one person chooses to listen to the wrong voice. A girl’s life was completely devastated, two brothers were dead, two mothers, a father, and an entire kingdom was left to mourn and to never be the same. One more example, sometimes the enemy wants to take you down so bad that he will send a multitude of voices, because after all, how can so many be so wrong? The story of Queen Esther tells us of Haman, the King’s power-hungry, right hand boy who hated the Jews especially Mordecai ( Esther’s uncle ) because Mordecai refused to bow to him. So Amidst his whining over the injustice of the situation, Esther 5:14 “Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, Let a gallows be made fifty cubits high, and on the morrow speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon: then go merrily with the king unto the banquet. and this thing pleased Haman; and he caused the gallows to be made.” Long story short, Haman was hanged on his own gallows and Mordecai got his job. God tells us “surely they shall gather together, but not by me, no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper.” Haman fell into his own trap, a trap laid at the urging of those closest to him, who supposedly had his best interests in mind, telling him exactly what his blackened, sin-laden heart wanted to hear. So like those collect calls from Egypt, you don’t realize the price until you get the bill and if you knew the cost you would have never agreed to accept those charges, it may be a bill like David’s, that his family ended up having to pay. Your true friends may not understand your faith, but they will respect it and be happy for you. Read Luke 15:8,9 the parable of the lady who found her lost silver and her friends rejoiced with her. Steer clear of “friends” who only want to drag you back to “Egypt”, because misery loves company and if they are not free they surely don’t want you to be. Just as with Adam and Eve, once the blinders were off and their eyes were opened to the truth,they knew the sin and the shame. Amnon, when his “love” immediately turned to complete disgust and hatred once he had achieved his desire. That is what sin does and no matter how good they make it sound or tell you just how much you are missing, if you give in to them, when the day comes, and it will come, like Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened, yours will be also and I promise you that your are not going to like what you see. The truth is that not only are friends like these a danger to your soul, they also endanger theirs by tempting you as a child of God. As the Bible teaches us, if we as believers defile this temple God will destroy it (us). Daniel 5 tells the story of Belshazzar, who had the bright idea that it would be fun to defile the vessels of the Lord which had been taken from the temple by Nebuchadnezzar. He and all with him drank from them, while praising their false pagan gods and having the equivalent to a big drunken feast, within an hour, his eyes beheld with horror and his knees actually shook with terror as a hand appeared from nowhere and proceeded to write out his death warrant on his own wall, when Daniel interrupted it he would soon learn that no one could save him from the judgment of God and he was dead that night. We are vessels, holy unto the Lord, set aside for his use and anyone who wishes to defile us will truly have hell to pay. Friends like these you don’t need. Pray and ask the Lord for real ones. And while you are waiting, remember he is the best friend you will ever have!
Φλογίζω / 05/24/2014. All rights reserved. Rev. Nina BrownJohnson 2015
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
Mothers, we are formed in their bodies, they feed us, diaper us, love us and nurture us.
They dry our tears and relieve all our fears. They chase the boogey men away. Spend sleepless nights by our bedside when we are sick.
Their love and patience pour over us as we spend hours crying through all the heartaches of puppy love and the growing pains that only a mother’s comfort can see us through. My own mother always had an awesome ability that allowed her even in the worst possible circumstance to see so beyond the crisis at hand and see a better time in the future. And I have truly been through a thing or two, including having to file for a restraining order at the ripe old age of eighteen and my mother always reassured me of several things. #1. Things always look brighter after a good night sleep. We often worry about bad things that never actually happen. #2. No matter how bad that day may seem, one day we really do look back and whatever it was that almost broke us will seem like a nightmare that never really even happened. #3. An old, old one which is true and will always be true, whatever doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.
You know she was right on all counts and she still is! I always thought if I could even be half the woman she is I would do well. She is beautiful inside and out and has such a dignity and grace about her that is almost regal and loves Jesus more than life itself. Mothers are like beautiful jewels, they come in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes. Each one exquisitely crafted by the Master’s hand. Maybe your birth mother or maybe the mother God chose just for you by joining you together through adoption.
Maybe He chose your Grandmother or Aunt as the defining maternal hand to guide you, love you, teach you, and above all nurture you in Him. Nevertheless we all know there is no one, no one like our Mother. The relationship between Mary and Jesus is such a beautiful example of this one of a kind bond. We know the story, Mary the blessed virgin, to whom an angel came to proclaim that she would give birth to the Son of the Almighty God, who had in fact created her. Without a doubt she was scared to death, how do you conceive without a mate? An answer which came when she was overshadowed by the Holy Ghost. How do you knowingly carry the Son of God inside your body? How do you tell your future husband and your family that this is true and it really happened to you?
How do you travel ninety miles on a donkey and give birth in a stable surrounded by his beautiful animal creations knowing this child is the one to save all of creation?
How do you accept the gifts of frankincense, gold, and myrrh brought from far away lands by wise men on bended knee who have been led there by a star to pay honor and tribute to the King of all Kings?
How do react when the shepherds come to worship him, relaying that the message of his arrival had been proclaimed to them by the host of heaven who proceeded to sing praises to the glory of God in the Highest as heaven came down and kissed earth? How do you give the offering of the poorest of poor when dedicating him, never, ever worrying about providing for him? How do you hear a prophecy from one who had been promised he would not see death until he beheld the face of this promised child, when that prophecy is that “a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also”?
As this child grows and maternal instincts take over, as he is held, loved, learns to crawl, walk and says his first words, has his first bumps and bruises and one day decides to stay behind and talk with the elders rather than join the caravan his family travelled with.
How do you understand, when you ask why he did this and he asks you “Did you not know I must be about my Father’s business?”, I will tell you how, he was her baby, even though he was divine, she knew he was God’s son but she was human and she was his mother and like all of us, that was her baby and as she watched him grow, he became what he was. Her son whom she loved more than life itself. Fast forward twenty-one years after pondering what did he mean by this, as he begins his ministry and watching his miracles (she had to know he held this power because she asked him to do something for her friends at the wedding when he turned the water into wine, which was his first public display of this power) she watched as her own people hated him and threatened his life, she watched as his ministry grew. She knew of his arrest and public torture and finally seeing him bloody, beaten beyond recognition and carrying a wooden beam to his execution, his battered body falling under the weight of it.
And unable to go to him, to hold him, to touch his face, to tell him everything would be okay and this was still her baby and there was nothing in the universe she could do to stop it because it was the piercing of her soul.
There would be no words to describe her sorrow. How could her beautiful son who hung nailed to a cross, nearing death look down and want to be sure his mother would be cared for before dying, because he was her firstborn son.
John 19:25-27 “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, (John) he saith unto his mother Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother!
And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.” They seriously wrote the book, the ultimate story of love between a mother and child, and a wonderful example to us about the love and respect we should have for own mothers.
I hope all have a blessed Mother’s Day and if you have lost your Mother, rejoice in knowing just as Jesus and Mary we reunited and are together forever and ever, you will be also.
And if you know a lady who maybe has lost her children or they are “too busy” for her, please, please consider “adopting” her for Mother’s Day.
A card, flowers or just a visit can change her world. Because loneliness is one “disease” we can cure! Remember Jesus said if you do it for one of his little one’s (saints) you’ve done it for him! Because He is the King and these ladies are precious, precious jewels that help make up his Majestic crown!
They are precious to him! Φλογίζω 2014
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
Song of Solomon 4:6: “Until the day break, and the shadows flee, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense.” Mountain climbing, some saying simply “because it is there” but that really doesn’t get it in the spirit world now does it? That verse tells us a couple of things, we are going somewhere, to the mountain of myrrh, where we will die to our flesh and shed all the excess junk we are carrying on this trip, because the higher we climb the more junk and baggage we will toss to lighten the load and make it easier to climb. The hill of frankincense, the place of effective spiritual intercession is our goal and we have determined that we will get there and we will stay there until day breaks over the spirit world and the shadows of death and hell flee away. The myrrh is a mountain and the hill is frankincense because the hardest part of dying to our own flesh and coming to the place of purification that we can stand in that place of prayer, it is NOT about being a great person or most “spiritual” it is about having a heart for God. As David said, the one thing he would seek after to inquire in the temple and worship God in the beauty of HIS holiness, (not ours) once that is accomplished the intercession isn’t quite daunting a task. It takes a determination, a very wise man once chatted with me about a very simple biblical truth, “many are called but few are chosen” many are saved and are happy right where they are and that is perfectly okay, but God is looking for those who seek more, who are aware of the needs of others and KNOW there are greater works to be done in these precious, blessed last days. They have the heart as Isaiah’s which echoes “Here am I Lord, send me” and those will be his chosen vessels to accomplish the works and bring in the harvest. There are nine spiritual gifts, and I do believe there will be people who the Lord flows these gifts through on an as needed basis. So many have chosen not to seek the gifts God has given them, but the work still has to get done and I do believe it will be by a multi-tasking army. So some may start climbing that mountain and decide it is a little too steep and the trip is just not worth it, and ask “How do we even know anything is up there anyway?” Some may have to stop on the way and reach down to help another back up and there may be times that we are carrying each other until strength returns. You have to know why you want to climb that mountain, I determined long ago that I’d climb the bloody thing or I would die on the way up, because I know my motivation, I know my prayers to the only one who holds it all in his nail scarred hands, when I just want to tell him just how much I can’t do this, how I just simply cannot go one more step, I remember, I remember he was completely stripped, beaten beyond recognition and brutally nailed to a cross and displayed for the whole world to ridicule and he did it because he had a mountain to climb, the hill of the ultimate intercession, a hill named Calvary, the intercession to save all of mankind, and the only way for him to do that was to climb that hill. Then I remember, he forever holds me, I have no strength in me, but through him I can do all things, and I ask myself what am I climbing for anyway? I climb on behalf of every child that lives in horror and abuse, I climb for every animal tortured, I climb for every victim of ethnic cleansing after seeing the hollow soul stripped eyes on CNN of the genocidal rape victims of the Taliban, I climb for every elderly person that lives at the complete mercy of others in nursing homes and privately. I climb out of my pain, the awareness that there are stripe scars on my soul so deep that they are my cross to be borne, and a very personal vendetta against hell itself, to see it brought to its knees and maybe the chance to scream a list of “things that are just not nice to do to people” at Satan when Jesus casts him and his angels into an eternal fire of hell. If you could see this mountain in the spirit world, I think you would have to compare it to stairs, the light of that place being the soft glow of lamplight and a single file journey, an ascension upward of prayers, starting with the gathering censers of incense ( prayers of the saints) and as they persist, maybe feeling like they aren’t getting anywhere at first, oh, but it is, as they climb higher and higher, a change takes place, that cumbersome clothing will become robes, symbolic of the covering of the righteousness of God.
The censers of incense will become the effectual, fervent spoken prayer of the righteous offered up in the presence of God unlike anything some of them have ever known. The Holy Spirit leads us, the Holy Ghost overtakes us, and while you know all that, there is a manifestation of his presence, just as when he came to the disciples and Paul, you may not see him but you will know he is standing right there. On that mountain top, or after the ascension of those spiritual “stairs”, however you choose to relate to it, it will be “Ask and it shall be given” And if this is your desire, get your motivation, remember those you “climb” for, keep climbing till you reach the top.
Psalm 65:4:“Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts; we will be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even thy holy temple.”
Psalm 12:7: “For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, NOW WILL I ARISE, saith the Lord: I WILL set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.” Remember why you climb, and climb.
Φλογίζω/original post:01/17/2015. All rights reserved. Rev. Nina BrownJohnson 2015
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
The sun may be shining, but it is night. The birds may be singing but it is night. For most, everything may appear well-lit and crystal clear but in the spirit world it is night. For the addict who is one hit away from the mouth of hell, it is night. For the prostitute who is one trick away from the wrong John, who will be the devil incarnate come to assure her entrance into hell, it is night. For the bullied teenager who is one razor blade away from ending it all, it is night. For those widowed and alone, whose loneliness eats away at their souls more viciously than any cancer, it is night. For those persecuted and imprisoned for their beliefs or simply for the sick pleasure of the forces of hell, still the brightest of days with the greatest, blinding magnification of the sun is the suffocating blackness of the most darkest of nights. Night Watchmen, those hired to protect and oversee the goods and properties of their employer. These particular watchmen actually being the biblical laborers hired in at that vital eleventh hour, because as dusk starts closing in, that harvest must not only be gathered, it must also be protected from the beasts of the field that attack to destroy it, even while the laborers work exhaustively to gather it. As it is the eleventh hour, this work must be done in complete unity, all while following one light that will light their way through the rows, showing both the ready crops and revealing the awaiting dangers. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Psalm 119:105 These are the night watchmen of the Lord, they stand in the night hours when destruction and mischief are most common, and sin tries to take cover under the darkness of night. While the rest of the world “sleeps”, these are they who will keep vigil, pray down strong holds, plead the blood of the Lamb over ones they have never even known and through intercessory prayer they will make a difference between life and death. They will through that prayer under the unified anointing of God will stand in the gap and make up the hedge around those who are unable to do it for themselves. Their petitions before the throne of grace will break chains of abuse and addictions and the anointing of God will break the chains of abuse and addictions. “BEHOLD, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord.” Psalm 134:1 Watchmen know who they are, and Night watchmen even more so.
Be vigilant, do not get discouraged and know that the power of the anointing of the secret prayers you pray alone are known of God, “who sees in secret, and will reward you openly”.
Ask that your prayers be accepted in agreement of unity with all those who are called as you are. Know this also that as this is the last Psalm in the “Songs of Degrees” (steps, stairs) and just as being “compassed about with songs in the night”, this is going somewhere, it is blessed and it is beginning of the “prayers of the saints.” Φλογίζω/ Original Post:01/01/2015. All rights reserved. Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
**REVISITED 03/05/2021**
Please consider reading the remainder in this series, the links are below.
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
Don’t you just love it when you voice an opinion in mixed company only to have the person with the opposing view look at you and say in that smug tone laced with sarcasm and disgust at the mere thought that you could possibly question their obviously superior intelligence, and they say “And you are??? I for one love it! Sometimes we need to remind ourselves of exactly who we are in God. Elijah the prophet of God, who was allowed to pray that it not rain, pray the rain would return and pray that fire would come down from heaven in the presence of his enemies. Elijah started those prayers with this statement “If I be a man of God..” Paul, in his writings dubbed himself “The prisoner of the Lord”, James refers to himself as “Servant of Jesus Christ”, John the “Beloved” and Mary who never gave herself a title but at his feet she knew exactly who she was and she fell absolutely, helplessly in love with him, a love born from being touched by love itself in the most pure form, a love so gentle, humble so powerful that it had restored her soul. She knew to be separated from Him would be a fate far worse than hell. They and so many more throughout the Bible have a very common denominator, they knew who they were in God and never let anyone convince them otherwise.
Today we hear so many voices telling us what to think what to eat, what to buy, what we should wear, and who would should be, our minds can become so clouded that we don’t even know who were are and we become too quick to forget who were are in Him. To achieve our purpose in these blessed last days God has chosen us to be born into, please give up a little you time, or TV time, just make a little time to get in that prayer closet, your personal secret place that is just and God, pray and fast, and remember this does not have to be food, you can fast anything.
Salvation and grace are completely free gifts, but to get in position for the last day outpouring of the spirit and great harvest of souls, and to allow him to stir the gifts and the calling he has placed in you, well it requires diligence on your part. 2 Thessalonians 2:3, tells of the great falling away of the church, we’ve been seeing that come to pass over the last few years. It is a time to weed out those who serve one day a week or for some reason other than a relationship with Christ and they will fall away.
Those who are willing to make any sacrifice necessary to see His Kingdom come will be those left standing, the approved of God . The ones before us who held on, no matter what suffering, ridicule and persecution they had to endure. and when they fell they sought God to lift them up again. David was human just as human as we are, yet he made tragic mistakes but he sought forgiveness. God said David was a man after his own heart, I know the common thought on it, but I really take it as David sought the very heart of God, to know Him and be part of the very heart of God. His praise was constant and he continually sought to have his heart searched, cleansed, restored and anything that may stand between them to be removed. God wants to help us and there is nothing inside of us that He doesn’t already know. He is a supreme gentlemen, he will never embarrass you ,or tell the whole world all of your secrets. He wants us to bring everything to Him and admit that we have problems so he can help us. Everyone needs trusted prayer partners but you also need that one on one with God, seek purification, seek out the calling and gifts and seek confirmation of them at church. We can feel lead in certain areas, but I tell you ,whatever area of ministry that stirs your heart is usually where your calling will be found BUT always study God’s word and if seems like a foreign language in the King James , get the New King James, it’s more easily understood, there several of versions of the Bible out there but I personally stop here, but no matter what you are called to do, you must have a good foundation of the word of God. It protects you from false doctrine especially when you are seeking.
“Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which is given thee by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.” 1 Timothy 4:14
I feel this is another shortcoming of modern churches today, we are to seek these gifts because they are not for us, they are needed to accomplish the work in the Kingdom.
“Meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly unto them; thy profiting may appear to all. TAKE HEED UNTO THYSELF, AND UNTO THE DOCTRINE; CONTINUE IN THEM: FOR IN DOING THIS THOU SHALT SAVE THYSELF AND ALL THAT HEAR THEE.” 1 Timothy 4:14,15
The time has come to seek and stir up those gifts of God, as he said if you will do these things you will see the lost saved. And while seeking, the enemy will rear his head to attempt to discourage you, and he will ask “And you are?”
Take your answer from Paul, 1 Corinthians 15:10 (a)”But by the grace of God I am what I am; and his grace which was bestowed on me was not in vain:..”
We are the generation chosen to seek His face, now it is up to us to believe that!
Original Post Date: 02/15/14 Φλογίζω/ All Rights Reserved. Nina BrownJohnson/ 2015
Thanks for reading Φλογιζω! For posts dealing with a multitude of subjects please check out the side menu on desktop or on a mobile device, please click any post title and once it opens scroll to bottom of screen for links to other options. If you have been encouraged please considering sharing post via any option below. God Bless you! Rev. Nina Brown Johnson
Ashes, sometimes all that is all that is left of what once was your life all that was held precious and dear, all that is left of what once was and most importantly what will be never again. Maybe you feel that way today, maybe you have wounds that are so deep, wounds that are […]
Φλογιζω SOUL FOCUS 