Tag Archives: Identity in Christ

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“Am I too late?”

Most have experienced the pain of waiting too late.

Too late in making a decision and living with that regret for years or sometimes life. Being late to an event or the fear that maybe you have already arrived too late and lost out on something you had long looked forward to, or feel that if you could only go back and change this or do that, everything would be different.

I feel like this goes on in the kingdom pretty often, people feel like they have waited too long in moving out into their calling, or they were hurt and rejected once they did step out.

I promise you that is just part of the deal, you step out for the Lord you’re gonna be hurt AND rejected but take it for the compliment that it is!

The enemy is NOT going to waste his time (because he knows it is short) fighting people for fun, he fights what he knows is a threat.

So they feel like they maybe they were mistaken about even being called, (another trick from the enemy) they feel they can’t “go back” to “that” church or “those” people because there is just “too much water under the bridge.”

Have you ever thought of it this way, maybe the WATER under that bridge is exactly what the enemy is trying to keep you out of!

Maybe you think you missed your calling, waited too long, and too much time has passes, too many struggles have ensued…

Got some good news on that story, what if you discovered one day that it was ALL part of the plan for your life to get you EXACTLY where you need to be spiritually in order to go EXACTLY where God wants to take you?

We’ve got two situations going here so we will hit them both.

It is NEVER too late!

Until you are dead and in the ground, then it is too late to pursue the call of God on your life no matter if it was given fifty years ago because: “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance (ARE IRREVOCABLE).” Romans 11:29

Which means God is NEVER going to say, “Oh sorry, I really did not mean to give you that, let me just take that back.”

NO it means He has given them for ever and ever.

And for whatever reason they have been unused I want you to be encouraged, get back up, get back on that boat, do not care who likes you, who doesn’t and do the will of your Father because it is Him that we answer to and sometimes, we are required to swallow our pride for the kingdom because pride does not belong in the kingdom and God ALWAYS deals with those who come against you and your calling, but if you hide it and refuse to use it, what reason would he have to exonerate you from your enemies, and prove them wrong?

Now to prove it is not too late, remember in Revelation when Jesus is warning and encouraging the churches as to what he expects of them, He is speaking to the church of Ephesus, who left their first love, I just want to use part of this verse, because these people WERE saved, they WERE known to Him, “Remember therefore from whence (where) thou art fallen, and repent, and DO THY FIRST WORKS;“ Revelation 2;5 (1)

So He is telling them DO your FIRST works.

I want to get this out-of-the-way, I know there could be the argument against this, because of the verse “called in one hope of your calling” but if you do not accept your ONE hope on this earth to do your job, and use your calling, you sure aren’t going to need it in heaven or New Jerusalem because everyone there will already be saved.

So if you are reading this, rest assured it is NOT too late!

I do want to warn you of a common snare with this, once “people” find out you are called, many of them can not wait to give advice and tell you what you should do” it is YOUR job from the Lord, HE will put in your heart or give to you by prophecy what you should do.

Don’t need it, please don’t listen to it unless you want to ask your Pastor, or prayer partner their thoughts on the best way to go about something, but please don’t let anyone influence you in your work for God, He calls us all differently.

Situation two, we’ll call, “You are growing, growing, growing”

Think about David, do you realize that David was anointed THREE times, anointed means to be separated for a specific purpose, the first time He was only about fifteen years old, and this was done privately, only in the presence of his family,

1 Samuel 16:13:” Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren; and the spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day FORWARD….”

From this point on, the spirit of God was with him, and even though he had ALREADY been anointed to be King, the time was not yet, and when he was sent to Saul, it was NOT as his replacement but as his harpist!

His next task would be to fight the mighty giant Goliath and I don’t even think David was even thinking about his future or the job he was already in training for, when he ran AT Goliath it was in confidence of the Lord, that no one was going to threaten and enslave the people of the Living God, and at NO point did he tell Goliath “I come to you as the future King” He told him that he came in “NAME of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel”.

He then went on to endure Saul’s insane jealously, hiding and fearing for his life, battling bloody battle upon battle, growing and growing into who he had been created to be.

He is anointed a second time, 2 Samuel 2:4,”And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah….” this time is publicly with his countrymen.

And on he goes… growing and growing, battling and battling, “friend” and foe, learning to deal with situations and all the qualities he would NEED, imperative to his success and survival.

He has been anointed privately, publicly, and now he will be anointed and accepted by the elders as King over all of Israel.

“So all the elders of Israel came to the king, to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the Lord; and they anointed David king over Israel. David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years.” 2 Samuel 5;3,4

The fulfillment of that promise unfolded over the period of his life that he was fourteen, fifteen years old until he was thirty, and even NOW part of the divine purpose for the throne of David is STILL unfolding and will be until the return of Christ!

How much do you think he matured and grew and learned and developed over those fifteen odd years? What if he had given up half way through and decided to “rethink” what had been told to him at that private anointing?

David was successful in that long journey because he never lost focus of the big picture, and allowed himself to be exactly what Go wanted, a vessel and David knew that no army, no power, nothing of this earth could defeat God or stop His divine will for Israel and this is what keep David going… and going.. it was NEVER easy and I am sure he experienced many moments of absolute sorrow during those dark times but he always held on and we must also!

Do not give up on your calling!

I love the story of Nehemiah and it has been encouragement many times for me personally, I actually have it written and taped in the front of my Bible, along with many other verses, we NEED this encouragement.

This took place  as Nehemiah set about to rebuild the wall and the enemies came forth to STOP THE WORK and I love this verse, Nehemiah 6:9; “ For they ALL made us AFRAID, saying, their hands SHALL BE WEAKENED FROM (because of) the work, that it not be done. NOW THEREFORE, O GOD, STRENGHTEN MY HANDS.”

This is a great verse to remember when “people” are telling you that “it” is impossible to accomplish what GOD SAID you could and trying to discourage you with the thought that the work is too hard and you can not possibly finish it.

Maybe what you think is a little too late could actually be right on time.

“Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is NOT unto death, BUT FOR THE GLORY OF GOD, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When he heard therefore that he was sick, HE ABODE (stayed) TWO DAYS STILL IN THE SAME PLACE WHERE HE WAS. Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judea again.

His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou hither again? ( why are you going back)  Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in a day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.

These things said he; and afterward he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; But I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.

Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death; but they thought he had spoken of taking rest in sleep.

Then said Jesus unto them, plainly, LAZARUS IS DEAD. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, TO THE INTENT THAT YOU MIGHT BELIEVE;…John 11:1-15 

Most know the rest of the story, the sisters go on to tell Him, if He had only been there, their brother would still be alive.

We often think about our pain in what we go through, but it was NOT easy for Jesus to allow them to go through this sorrow and everyone is crying and now HE IS crying also, and I ALWAYS have to point this out because it just tells you WHO HE IS, He KNEW that in matter of moments Lazarus would be very much alive, it just broke His heart seeing them hurt, it does break His heart to see His children cry, NEVER doubt that.

“Jesus said, Take ye away the stone, Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh; for HE HATH BEEN DEAD FOUR DAYS.

Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, IF THOU WOULDEST BELIEVE, THOU SHOULDEST SEE THE GLORY OF GOD?” John 11:39,40

As we know from the verses, He LOVED them, but Lazarus was allowed to die so the GLORY would be revealed. But it was not the END of Lazarus’s  story and EVEN four days dead was still not too late! 

Just as He said, it was that the GLORY OF GOD WOULD BE REVEALED AND THAT THEY WOULD BELEIVE!

It may look dead, doesn’t mean it is dead!

May just not be as late as you think it is after all!

So if you find yourself asking.. “Am I too late?”, Have faith.. it all may just be right on time!

Φλογίζω Σαλπιζω NBJ 2016 *REVISITED 04/25/2023 Rev. N. Brown Johnson 

 

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“Gazingstock”

1 CORINTHIANS 4:9-13: “For I think that God hath set forth (displayed) us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death; for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to the angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake (the world opinion) but ye are wise in Christ; we ARE weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we ARE despised.

Even unto the present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked (poorly clothed), and ARE buffeted (beaten) and have no certain dwelling place; and labour, working with our own hands: BEING reviled, we bless; BEING persecuted, we suffer (endure) it. BEING defamed (slandered) we entreat (encourage): we ARE made the filth of this world and ARE the offscouring of all things unto this day. “

We often think of the Apostles as almost superhuman, almost as if, had they needed to, they could have run through stone buildings.

We are half right, considering that they, with the exception of Paul hung out with Jesus and SAW Him ascend into heaven and combined they were FREED by angels, SAW demons cast out and SAW the dead resurrected back to life.

BUT the super part belonged to the LORD the other is just human!
As we read the verse above, nothing about that sounds glamorous, or remotely desirable as a lifestyle and these are the things we often forget.

I truly believe that this is what causes so many “new” Christians to slip and some seasoned ones to misplace their robes and end up wearing a coat made of jade 

For the most part it is preventable.

Once we accept Christ, and especially if we have been given the gift of the Holy Ghost, we have that wonderful newness.

Everything IS brand new; WE ARE New but then life, emotions, and the enemy come and often no one has ever told the “new” person that what they are going through is NORMAL for the course and no one helps them through that maze, and they end up lost in it and give up even trying to find their way home.

The second group comes into play, as often having a fight with hell all the way to the altar and sometimes passed the altar and into the water because they have a call on their life.

And once they do make it “in” that fight only intensifies and I really, really wish I could give a “one word will make it all go away” answer right here.

BUT it does not exist.
Once this particular spiritual warfare has been engaged, it cannot be disengaged because:
#1. The calling of God on lives is determined before birth and “they do not expire until we do.”
#2. Giving up is not an option, you will lose your salvation, and everything you have ALREADY fought through will have been for nothing.
#3. Outside of the will of God and without His protection, satan will chew you up and spit you out.
#4 Your fall will affect every single person you love and all those whom you were to minister to.
#5 THE most important reason is that JESUS died for you and saved you and He will NEVER let you be tested beyond what you can handle, and a servant cannot be above His Master, to reign with Christ we must suffer with Christ.
“Think It not strange…” sometimes battles are so fierce and dark that you cannot even see daylight, but you must remember you war against principalities and powers of the air.

I don’t know how I would have ever made it had God not blessed me with the people he did in my life and ministers that would share their own personal battle stories and some so hard to fathom, that my problems would pale in comparison.

Without the knowledge that these things happened to people whom I knew were Godly and doing their best in their walk, I could have never kept my head above water, I held onto every single word and would remember their stories and how they got through it and that they were still standing and that I serve the same God.

HEBREWS 10:32,33: “But call to remembrance the former days, in which after ye were illuminated (enlightened), ye ENDURED a GREAT FIGHT OF AFFLICTIONS (struggle with sufferings); partly, (in part) whilst ye were made a GAZINGSTOCK (SPECTACLE) BOTH BY REPROACHES AND AFFLICTIONS (tribulations) and partly (in part) whilst YE BECAME COMPANIONS OF THEM THAT WERE SO USED (treated).

What can we say there?

The days after your salvation, such a GREAT FIGHT with sufferings and troubles. You were as one that the world would look at and stare upon, as one in medieval stocks for the entire village to mock and ridicule.
Reproaches of those who laugh at your salvation and the enemy who questions “Where is your God now?”

But it is due in part so that YOU CAN become who you are to become in Christ.

1 PETER 1;4-8,10: “Whereby are given unto us exceeding GREAT and PRECIOUS promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

And beside (along with) this, giving ALL DILIGENCE, ADD to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge: AND to knowledge temperance (self-control); AND to temperance patience; AND to patience godliness; AND to godliness brotherly kindness; AND to brotherly kindness CHARITY (love).
FOR if these things be in you (are yours) and abound, they make you that YE SHALL NEITHER BE BARREN NOR UNFRUITFUL IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. Wherefore the rather brethren, GIVE DILIGENCE TO MAKE YOUR CALLING AND ELECTION SURE: FOR IF YOU DO THESE THINGS YE SHALL NEVER FAIL.”

So, you have heard it from Paul, and you have heard it from Peter, now they are some pretty reliable sources!!!

All these things WILL work to your good and all these things WILL produce every quality needed to be productive in the Kingdom of God.
If you are “new” please stay close and active in a good Bible believing church, read along with them, find ministers that you enjoy hearing and enjoy the word, don’t pressure yourself or let anyone else pressure you, the only opinion of you that should matter is God’s and He is awesome and will teach you all things.

Find a good prayer partner that you can trust, that can pray with you when life comes at you or temptation comes calling and if you fall of the boat, repent and get back on the boat!

And keep trying, IT WILL GET BETTER, and IT WILL GET EASIER.
If you are in group two, seek the old paths and surround yourself with prayer warriors and try to spend time with older ones who have been there and done that and they WILL encourage you and give you godly advice that is imperative to stay on track in your calling.

And the best news is this, once you successfully war against an attack of the enemy, he will no longer use that same weapon, because it is no longer effective.

Once you make it through a tough battle you will soon find that the battle made you stronger and you will be able to stand against attacks that would have put you out earlier in your ministry.

You will also be better at seeing attacks coming and be prepared more easily, not to say there will never be blind sides, but when it is said and done, you will be glad you stayed the course, because medals are not just given, they must be won.
Φλογιζω NB/2016  REVISITED 08/15/2021 Praying someone will be encouraged by this thought TODAY! **REVISTED 08/20/2022** God’s Word is forever the same.

 

by

“Gazingstock”

1 CORINTHIANS 4:9-13: “For I think that God hath set forth (displayed) us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death; for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to the angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake ( the world opinion) but ye are wise in Christ; we ARE weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we ARE despised.

Even unto the present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked (poorly clothed), and ARE buffeted (beaten) and have no certain dwelling place; and labour, working with our own hands: BEING reviled, we bless; BEING persecuted, we suffer (endure) it. BEING defamed (slandered) we entreat (encourage): we ARE made the filth of this world, and ARE the offscouring of all things unto this day. “

We often think of the Apostles as almost super human, almost as if, had they needed to, they could have run through stone buildings.

We are half right, considering that they, with the exception of Paul hung out with Jesus and SAW Him ascend into heaven and combined they were FREED by angels, SAW demons cast out and SAW the dead resurrected back to life.

BUT the super part belonged to the LORD the other is just human!
As we read the verse above, nothing about that sounds glamorous, or remotely desirable as a life style and these are the things we often forget.

I truly believe that this is what causes so many “new” Christians to slip and some seasoned ones to misplace their robes and end up wearing a coat made of jade 

For the most part it is preventable.

Once we accept Christ, and especially if we have been given the gift of the Holy Ghost, we have that wonderful newness.

Everything IS brand new, WE ARE New but then life, emotions, and the enemy come and often no one has ever told the “new” person that what they are going through is NORMAL for the course and no one helps them through that maze and they end up lost in it and give up even trying to find their way home.

The second group comes into play, as often having a fight with hell all the way to the altar and sometimes passed the altar and into the water because they have a call on their life.

And once they do make it “in” that fight only intensifies and I really, really wish I could give a “one word will make it all go away” answer right here.

BUT it does not exist.
Once this particular spiritual warfare has been engaged, it can not be disengaged because:
#1. The calling of God on lives is determined before birth and “they do not expire until we do.”
#2. Giving up is not an option, you will lose your salvation, and everything you have ALREADY fought through will have been for nothing.
#3. Outside of the will of God and without His protection, satan will chew you up and spit you out.
#4 Your fall will affect every single person you love and all those whom you were to minister to.
#5 THE most important reason is that JESUS died for you and saved you and He will NEVER let you be tested beyond what you can handle and a servant can not be above His Master, to reign with Christ we must suffer with Christ.
“Think It not strange…” sometimes battles are so fierce and dark that you can not even see daylight but you must remember you war against principalities and powers of the air.

I don’t know how I would have ever made it had God not blessed me with the people he did in my life and ministers that would share their own personal battle stories and some so hard to fathom, that my problems would pale in comparison.

Without the knowledge that these things happened to people whom I knew were Godly and doing their best in their walk, I could have never kept my head above water, I held onto every single word and would remember their stories and how they got through it and that they were still standing and that I serve the same God.

HEBREWS 10:32,33: “But call to remembrance the former days, in which after ye were illuminated (enlightened), ye ENDURED a GREAT FIGHT OF AFFLICTIONS (struggle with sufferings); partly, (in part) whilst ye were made a GAZINGSTOCK (SPECTACLE) BOTH BY REPROACHES AND AFFLICTIONS (tribulations) and partly (in part) whilst YE BECAME COMPANIONS OF THEM THAT WERE SO USED (treated).

What can we say there?

The days after your salvation, such a GREAT FIGHT with sufferings and troubles. You were as one that the world would look at and stare upon, as one in medieval stocks for the entire village to mock and ridicule.
Reproaches of those who laugh at your salvation and the enemy who questions “Where is your God now?”

But it is due in part so that YOU CAN become who you are to become in Christ.

1 PETER 1;4-8,10: “Whereby are given unto us exceeding GREAT and PRECIOUS promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

And beside (along with) this, giving ALL DILIGENCE, ADD to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge: AND to knowledge temperance ( self-control); AND to temperance patience; AND to patience godliness; AND to godliness brotherly kindness; AND to brotherly kindness CHARITY ( love).
FOR if these thing be in you (are yours) and abound, they make you that YE SHALL NEITHER BE BARREN NOR UNFRUITFUL IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. Wherefore the rather brethren, GIVE DILIGENCE TO MAKE YOUR CALLING AND ELECTION SURE: FOR IF YOU DO THESE THINGS YE SHALL NEVER FAIL.”

So you have heard it from Paul and you have heard it from Peter, now they are some pretty reliable sources!!!

All these things WILL work to your good and all these things WILL produce every quality needed to be productive in the Kingdom of God.
If you are “new” please stay close and active in a good Bible believing church, read along with them, find ministers that you enjoy hearing and enjoy the word, don’t pressure yourself or let anyone else pressure you, the only opinion of you that should matter is God’s and He is awesome and will teach you all things.

Find a good prayer partner that you can trust, that can pray with you when life comes at you or temptation comes calling and if you fall of the boat, repent and get back on the boat!

And keep trying, IT WILL GET BETTER and IT WILL GET EASIER.
If you are in group two, seek the old paths and surround yourself with prayer warriors and try to spend time with older ones who have been there and done that and they WILL encourage you and give you godly advice that is imperative to stay on track in your calling.

And the best news is this, once you successfully war against an attack of the enemy, he will no more use that same weapon, because it is no longer effective.

Once you make it through a tough battle you will soon find that the battle made you stronger and you will be able to stand against attacks that would have put you out earlier in your ministry.

You will also be better at seeing attacks coming and be prepared more easily, not to say there will never be blind sides, but when it is said and done, you will be glad you stayed the course, because medals are not just given, they must be won.
Φλογιζω NB/2016  REVISITED 08/15/2021 Praying someone will be encouraged by this thought TODAY!

by

When in Rome…

“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through (in) the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord. 

According as his DIVINE POWER hath GIVEN unto us ALL things that pertain unto life and godliness, THROUGH the knowledge of him that HATH CALLED US TO GLORY AND VIRTUE.

Whereby ARE GIVEN unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the DIVINE NATURE, having escaped the corruption THAT IS IN THE WORLD through lust.” 2 Peter 1:2-4 

Lovin’ the old saying…”When in Rome… you know… “do as the Romans.” But I want to give you a slightly different take on it as we go into a new year.

We all know that when the clock strikes midnight, December 31st, no magic star-dust will be falling from the sky, we also know that Cinderella’s dress really doesn’t mystically transform back into soot covered, tattered rags.

But most do hold it as time is called on the stop watch of old and a new countdown is set for the future.

Which is why I always just go with it. I believe in HOPE and my HOPE is in the Lord but I will take a little extra encouragement wherever I can find it!

So here we go.. “When in Rome REMEMBER that while everyone was doing as everyone else.. Rome FELL!

Let’s check out our scriptures. Our starter verse greets us with the blessing of praying that grace and peace be multiplied to us! But we are quickly REMINDED that the multiplication of THAT grace and THAT peace comes IN the knowledge of God.

What is the knowledge of God? I personally believe that it would be keeping Him first and foremost in our hearts and our minds and most of all our EVERYDAY lives. Now that is NOT always easy!

But we know that he also PROMISED that he would “keep in PERFECT peace” those who keep their minds on Him. Making time every day to read at least one scripture or devotional. If you do not have morning time to read for yourself, sign up for daily verse emails (my husband reads his aloud for our family) and even social medias have many pages that offer this.

Another great way to stay spiritually fed while multi-tasking is to consider CD’s or electronic devices that you can listen to while driving, cleaning, or while doing almost anything.

It is also great to listen to good, Bible based preaching BUT it is so important to get the actual WRITTEN WORD of God in your Spirit. When we get the Word of God on the “tables of our heart” God uses that to reveal to us what He is saying to us PERSONALLY, not just as it had been revealed to one of His ministers.

I am in no way kicking that, that is His intention by having those who are called to preach the Gospel. But sometimes He will reveal a certain take on a scripture just for you for a certain season or particular battle.

Think about His statement from John 14:26: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

We  have to have His word in us so that it can be brought back to our remembrance because we have can no memory of that which we have not learned. this is one of those when in Rome areas, we can not rest our knowledge of Christ solely upon what is being taught to us.

We know that currently the world is full of false teaching concerning God and especially concerning holiness and acceptable behaviors.  This gets us into our verse dealing with the fact that we have BEEN CALLED OUT of this world.

We are no longer partakers of the world and the sins and snares thereof. A life that we could not free ourselves from BUT a life in which we are called into.

A life that has been GIVEN by absolute DIVINE power that allows to overcome those snares and traps to live inside that realm of virtue and the blessed state of His glory shining on our lives, in the midst of even the darkness of this world.

And these are those promises, that we are called out and called into Him and that through him and His promises that we will escape the lusts of this world that corrupts us.

Think about the word lust.. not the just the sexual sense. The sexual sense is actually the LEAST of the lusts we have to battle. it simply means DESIRE and think of all the desires our flesh has to battle… daily.

The desire of life, the desire of work, the desire to excel in whatever we have chosen. The desire for monetary gains, the desire for popularity, the desire to be liked, loved, needed, or even the desire to be pretty, articulate, even the desire to be “desirable” NOT in the lustful sense but in the attractive sense.

Even the desire to be competitive, the desire to get even, the desire to be “one up” on a foe.  ANYTHING, any emotion, any thought, ANYTHING has the potential to BECOME lustful if not carefully checked against the word of God. 

That was the trouble with the  ancient Romans. They actually took their ideas for their society from the Greeks. They just made everything BIGGER and BETTER than what the Greeks had. The Greeks worshipped twelve “gods’ so the Romans added two and worshipped fourteen.

They built their society based on the thoughts and ideas stolen from the Greeks and as we all know became the world power of the day.

But we also know when it fell.. “great was the fall” and will never again rise to its former stature. We, as a society, take our cues from the media and entertainment, and most horrifically the voice that cries the loudest.

Often thoughts and ideas of a very small group of people become force-fed into mainstream population by the media and soon EVERYONE is EXPECTED to conform to that thought or image, when it is not actually even the popular thought.

It is time to relinquish the societal control that we allow to dictate our lives, thoughts, and desires BACK to God so that we can TRULY be conformed to His will, HIS purpose and most of all HIS divine nature.

So “destroy” that influence over your life in the coming new year. basically, if it does not honor God, do not give it honor by allowing whatever that force is to influence your life. If you are doing or seeing anything that you could not see or do with Jesus beside you.. then simply do not allow that to have any place in your thoughts, life, or family.

Check out what He told the Hebrews, Deuteronomy 7:2-6: “And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them, thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:

Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they WILL turn away thy son FROM FOLLOWING ME, that they may serve other gods, so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.

But thus (here’s how) ye shall deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.

For thou ART (you are) AN HOLY (set apart) PEOPLE UNTO GOD; THE LORD THY GOD HATH CHOSEN THEE TO BE A SPECIAL PEOPLE (treasure) UNTO HIMSELF, above all the people that are upon the face of the earth.”

As you see THIS is the word of God. HE IS telling us through it that just as the Hebrews were to NOT to have any dealings whatsoever ever with those who were their enemies that we are to NOT have any dealings whatsoever with those things today that ARE our SPIRITUAL enemies.

And notice that He did INCLUDE our children and what we allow to influence them and HE told us in no uncertain terms that exposure to these enemies would lead to REBELLION against Him. That we are to DESTROY those things out of our lives BECAUSE He has called us as His. And fortunately for us, it is much easier NOW to remove those spiritual enemies by making our choices based on His teachings.

So don’t let this world influence your life, you influence the world by living your life for Him!

Finally a couple of quick notes… WHY did Cinderella’s shoes NOT change when everything else did in that fairy-tale? Anyone else ever wonder about that 🙂 ?

Also if you are reading internationally, please know that this title and reference to the old saying and ancient Rome in NO WAY reflects my feelings toward Rome… or Romans, this has been completely symbolic.

Rome is a beautiful place that I would love to visit one day!

And I also wanted to thank you all again from the bottom of my heart for reading this past year and it is my sincerest prayer that you be blessed with new revelations, new joy, and the happiness and peace that can only be found in a true personal relationship with our Lord and Creator Jesus Christ of Nazareth! Amen!

Original post date: 12/28/2017 But sometimes it is good to be reminded.

Φλογιζω Σαλπιζω NBJ 2017

by

AND YOU ARE?

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  

 

 

by

When in Rome… 2018

“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through (in) the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord. 

According as his DIVINE POWER hath GIVEN unto us ALL things that pertain unto life and godliness, THROUGH the knowledge of him that HATH CALLED US TO GLORY AND VIRTUE.

Whereby ARE GIVEN unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the DIVINE NATURE, having escaped the corruption THAT IS IN THE WORLD through lust.” 2 Peter 1:2-4 

Lovin’ the old saying…”When in Rome… you know… “do as the Romans.” But I want to give you a slightly different take on it as we go into a new year.

We all know that when the clock strikes midnight, December 31st, no magic star-dust will be falling from the sky, we also know that Cinderella’s dress really doesn’t mystically transform back into soot covered, tattered rags.

But most do hold it as time is called on the stop watch of old and a new countdown is set for the future.

Which is why I always just go with it. I believe in HOPE and my HOPE is in the Lord but I will take a little extra encouragement wherever I can find it!

So here we go.. “When in Rome REMEMBER that while everyone was doing as everyone else.. Rome FELL!

Let’s check out our scriptures. Our starter verse greets us with the blessing of praying that grace and peace be multiplied to us! But we are quickly REMINDED that the multiplication of THAT grace and THAT peace comes IN the knowledge of God.

What is the knowledge of God? I personally believe that it would be keeping Him first and foremost in our hearts and our minds and most of all our EVERYDAY lives. Now that is NOT always easy!

But we know that he also PROMISED that he would “keep in PERFECT peace” those who keep their minds on Him. Making time every day to read at least one scripture or devotional. If you do not have morning time to read for yourself, sign up for daily verse emails (my husband reads his aloud for our family) and even social medias have many pages that offer this.

Another great way to stay spiritually fed while multi-tasking is to consider CD’s or electronic devices that you can listen to while driving, cleaning, or while doing almost anything.

It is also great to listen to good, Bible based preaching BUT it is so important to get the actual WRITTEN WORD of God in your Spirit. When we get the Word of God on the “tables of our heart” God uses that to reveal to us what He is saying to us PERSONALLY, not just as it had been revealed to one of His ministers.

I am in no way kicking that, that is His intention by having those who are called to preach the Gospel. But sometimes He will reveal a certain take on a scripture just for you for a certain season or particular battle.

Think about His statement from John 14:26: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

We  have to have His word in us so that it can be brought back to our remembrance because we have can no memory of that which we have not learned. this is one of those when in Rome areas, we can not rest our knowledge of Christ solely upon what is being taught to us.

We know that currently the world is full of false teaching concerning God and especially concerning holiness and acceptable behaviors.  This gets us into our verse dealing with the fact that we have BEEN CALLED OUT of this world.

We are no longer partakers of the world and the sins and snares thereof. A life that we could not free ourselves from BUT a life in which we are called into.

A life that has been GIVEN by absolute DIVINE power that allows to overcome those snares and traps to live inside that realm of virtue and the blessed state of His glory shining on our lives, in the midst of even the darkness of this world.

And these are those promises, that we are called out and called into Him and that through him and His promises that we will escape the lusts of this world that corrupts us.

Think about the word lust.. not the just the sexual sense. The sexual sense is actually the LEAST of the lusts we have to battle. it simply means DESIRE and think of all the desires our flesh has to battle… daily.

The desire of life, the desire of work, the desire to excel in whatever we have chosen. The desire for monetary gains, the desire for popularity, the desire to be liked, loved, needed, or even the desire to be pretty, articulate, even the desire to be “desirable” NOT in the lustful sense but in the attractive sense.

Even the desire to be competitive, the desire to get even, the desire to be “one up” on a foe.  ANYTHING, any emotion, any thought, ANYTHING has the potential to BECOME lustful if not carefully checked against the word of God. 

That was the trouble with the  ancient Romans. They actually took their ideas for their society from the Greeks. They just made everything BIGGER and BETTER than what the Greeks had. The Greeks worshipped twelve “gods’ so the Romans added two and worshipped fourteen. They built their society based on the thoughts and ideas stolen from the Greeks and as we all know became the world power of the day.

But we also know when it fell.. “great was the fall” and will never again rise to its former stature. We, as a society, take our cues from the media and entertainment, and most horrifically the voice that cries the loudest.

Often thoughts and ideas of a very small group of people become force-fed into mainstream population by the media and soon EVERYONE is EXPECTED to conform to that thought or image, when it is not actually even the popular thought.

It is time to relinquish the societal control that we allow to dictate our lives, thoughts, and desires BACK to God so that we can TRULY be conformed to His will, HIS purpose and most of all HIS divine nature.

So “destroy” that influence over your life in the coming new year. basically, if it does not honor God, do not give it honor by allowing whatever that force is to influence your life. If you are doing or seeing anything that you could not see or do with Jesus beside you.. then simply do not allow that to have any place in your thoughts, life, or family.

Check out what He told the Hebrews, Deuteronomy 7:2-6: “And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them, thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:

Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they WILL turn away thy son FROM FOLLOWING ME, that they may serve other gods, so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.

But thus (here’s how) ye shall deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.

For thou ART (you are) AN HOLY (set apart) PEOPLE UNTO GOD; THE LORD THY GOD HATH CHOSEN THEE TO BE A SPECIAL PEOPLE (treasure) UNTO HIMSELF, above all the people that are upon the face of the earth.”

As you see THIS is the word of God. HE IS telling us through it that just as the Hebrews were to NOT to have any dealings whatsoever ever with those who were their enemies that we are to NOT have any dealings whatsoever with those things today that ARE our SPIRITUAL enemies.

And notice that He did INCLUDE our children and what we allow to influence them and HE told us in no uncertain terms that exposure to these enemies would lead to REBELLION against Him. That we are to DESTROY those things out of our lives BECAUSE He has called us as His. And fortunately for us, it is much easier NOW to remove those spiritual enemies by making our choices based on His teachings.

So don’t let this world influence your life, you influence the world by living your life for Him!

Finally a couple of quick notes… WHY did Cinderella’s shoes NOT change when everything else did in that fairy-tale? Anyone else ever wonder about that 🙂 ?

Also if you are reading internationally, please know that this title and reference to the old saying and ancient Rome in NO WAY reflects my feelings toward Rome… or Romans, this has been completely symbolic. Rome is a beautiful place that I would love to visit one day!

And I also wanted to thank you all again from the bottom of my heart for reading this past year and it is my sincerest prayer that you be blessed with new revelations, new joy, and the happiness and peace that can only be found in a true personal relationship with our Lord and Creator Jesus Christ of Nazareth! Amen!

Φλογιζω Σαλπιζω NBJ 2017

by

When in Rome…

“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through (in) the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord. 

According as his DIVINE POWER hath GIVEN unto us ALL things that pertain unto life and godliness, THROUGH the knowledge of him that HATH CALLED US TO GLORY AND VIRTUE.

Whereby ARE GIVEN unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the DIVINE NATURE, having escaped the corruption THAT IS IN THE WORLD through lust.” 2 Peter 1:2-4 

Lovin’ the old saying…”When in Rome… you know… “do as the Romans.” But I want to give you a slightly different take on it as we go into a new year.

We all know that when the clock strikes midnight, December 31st, no magic star-dust will be falling from the sky, we also know that Cinderella’s dress really doesn’t mystically transform back into soot covered, tattered rags.

But most do hold it as time is called on the stop watch of old and a new countdown is set for the future.

Which is why I always just go with it. I believe in HOPE and my HOPE is in the Lord but I will take a little extra encouragement wherever I can find it!

So here we go.. “When in Rome REMEMBER that while everyone was doing as everyone else.. Rome FELL!

Let’s check out our scriptures. Our starter verse greets us with the blessing of praying that grace and peace be multiplied to us! But we are quickly REMINDED that the multiplication of THAT grace and THAT peace comes IN the knowledge of God.

What is the knowledge of God? I personally believe that it would be keeping Him first and foremost in our hearts and our minds and most of all our EVERYDAY lives. Now that is NOT always easy!

But we know that he also PROMISED that he would “keep in PERFECT peace” those who keep their minds on Him. Making time every day to read at least one scripture or devotional. If you do not have morning time to read for yourself, sign up for daily verse emails (my husband reads his aloud for our family) and even social medias have many pages that offer this.

Another great way to stay spiritually fed while multi-tasking is to consider CD’s or electronic devices that you can listen to while driving, cleaning, or while doing almost anything.

It is also great to listen to good, Bible based preaching BUT it is so important to get the actual WRITTEN WORD of God in your Spirit. When we get the Word of God on the “tables of our heart” God uses that to reveal to us what He is saying to us PERSONALLY, not just as it had been revealed to one of His ministers.

I am in no way kicking that, that is His intention by having those who are called to preach the Gospel. But sometimes He will reveal a certain take on a scripture just for you for a certain season or particular battle.

Think about His statement from John 14:26: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

We  have to have His word in us so that it can be brought back to our remembrance because we have can no memory of that which we have not learned. this is one of those when in Rome areas, we can not rest our knowledge of Christ solely upon what is being taught to us.

We know that currently the world is full of false teaching concerning God and especially concerning holiness and acceptable behaviors.  This gets us into our verse dealing with the fact that we have BEEN CALLED OUT of this world.

We are no longer partakers of the world and the sins and snares thereof. A life that we could not free ourselves from BUT a life in which we are called into.

A life that has been GIVEN by absolute DIVINE power that allows to overcome those snares and traps to live inside that realm of virtue and the blessed state of His glory shining on our lives, in the midst of even the darkness of this world.

And these are those promises, that we are called out and called into Him and that through him and His promises that we will escape the lusts of this world that corrupts us.

Think about the word lust.. not the just the sexual sense. The sexual sense is actually the LEAST of the lusts we have to battle. it simply means DESIRE and think of all the desires our flesh has to battle… daily.

The desire of life, the desire of work, the desire to excel in whatever we have chosen. The desire for monetary gains, the desire for popularity, the desire to be liked, loved, needed, or even the desire to be pretty, articulate, even the desire to be “desirable” NOT in the lustful sense but in the attractive sense.

Even the desire to be competitive, the desire to get even, the desire to be “one up” on a foe.  ANYTHING, any emotion, any thought, ANYTHING has the potential to BECOME lustful if not carefully checked against the word of God. 

That was the trouble with the  ancient Romans. They actually took their ideas for their society from the Greeks. They just made everything BIGGER and BETTER than what the Greeks had. The Greeks worshipped twelve “gods’ so the Romans added two and worshipped fourteen.

They built their society based on the thoughts and ideas stolen from the Greeks and as we all know became the world power of the day.

But we also know when it fell.. “great was the fall” and will never again rise to its former stature. We, as a society, take our cues from the media and entertainment, and most horrifically the voice that cries the loudest.

Often thoughts and ideas of a very small group of people become force-fed into mainstream population by the media and soon EVERYONE is EXPECTED to conform to that thought or image, when it is not actually even the popular thought.

It is time to relinquish the societal control that we allow to dictate our lives, thoughts, and desires BACK to God so that we can TRULY be conformed to His will, HIS purpose and most of all HIS divine nature.

So “destroy” that influence over your life in the coming new year. basically, if it does not honor God, do not give it honor by allowing whatever that force is to influence your life. If you are doing or seeing anything that you could not see or do with Jesus beside you.. then simply do not allow that to have any place in your thoughts, life, or family.

Check out what He told the Hebrews, Deuteronomy 7:2-6: “And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them, thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:

Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they WILL turn away thy son FROM FOLLOWING ME, that they may serve other gods, so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.

But thus (here’s how) ye shall deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.

For thou ART (you are) AN HOLY (set apart) PEOPLE UNTO GOD; THE LORD THY GOD HATH CHOSEN THEE TO BE A SPECIAL PEOPLE (treasure) UNTO HIMSELF, above all the people that are upon the face of the earth.”

As you see THIS is the word of God. HE IS telling us through it that just as the Hebrews were to NOT to have any dealings whatsoever ever with those who were their enemies that we are to NOT have any dealings whatsoever with those things today that ARE our SPIRITUAL enemies.

And notice that He did INCLUDE our children and what we allow to influence them and HE told us in no uncertain terms that exposure to these enemies would lead to REBELLION against Him. That we are to DESTROY those things out of our lives BECAUSE He has called us as His. And fortunately for us, it is much easier NOW to remove those spiritual enemies by making our choices based on His teachings.

So don’t let this world influence your life, you influence the world by living your life for Him!

Finally a couple of quick notes… WHY did Cinderella’s shoes NOT change when everything else did in that fairy-tale? Anyone else ever wonder about that 🙂 ?

Also if you are reading internationally, please know that this title and reference to the old saying and ancient Rome in NO WAY reflects my feelings toward Rome… or Romans, this has been completely symbolic.

Rome is a beautiful place that I would love to visit one day!

And I also wanted to thank you all again from the bottom of my heart for reading this past year and it is my sincerest prayer that you be blessed with new revelations, new joy, and the happiness and peace that can only be found in a true personal relationship with our Lord and Creator Jesus Christ of Nazareth! Amen!

Original post date: 12/28/2017 But sometimes it is good to be reminded.

Φλογιζω Σαλπιζω NBJ 2017

by

“Dreaming in Greek”

My that is hard to read!!! Can you read it? Well, neither can I! But I know what it says and something very similar looking changed my life and my misperceptions about “listening” for the “voice” of God.

“But without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that HE IS, and that HE IS a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Hebrews 11:6

Now the dictionary define faith as COMPLETE TRUST, and we know so many wonderful faith scripture and verses and teachings that we should all have the faith to absolutely move mountains…umm.. if we had the faith and if we had the prayer of faith and the faith to believe the impossible and yet did absolutely nothing with faith.

Then as James 2:17-26 tells us “Even so faith, IF IT hast not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, if a man may say, thou hast faith, and I have works: shew (show) me thy faith without thy works.

and I will shew you my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God: thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know (do you want to know) , O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered Isaac his son upon the altar?  Seest thou (do you see) how faith wrought (was working) with his works, and by works was faith made perfect (complete)?

And the scripture WAS fulfilled which saith ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS IMPUTED (accounted) UNTO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS; and he was called the Friend of God.

Ye see then how that by works a man (meaning human person) is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and sent them out another way?

For AS THE BODY WITHOUT THE SPIRIT IS DEAD, SO FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD.”

So to see what we have going on here, the key things to remember is that God EXPECTS us to have COMPLETE TRUST in Him, what is Word says, and what He prompts in our spirits, even when we do not understand.

Story after story in the Bible paints us a beautiful picture of this and the two stories from James are prime examples, as we are told in Hebrews chapter eleven.. better known as THE FAITH CHAPTER.. verses seventeen-nineteen:

“By FAITH Abraham, when he was tries (tested), offered up Isaac and he that received the promises offered up his only begotten son. Of whom it was said, That IN Isaac shall thy seed be called: ACCOUNTING THAT GOD WAS ABLE TO RAISE HIM UP, EVEN FROM THE DEAD;”…

And Rahab, whose story starts in Joshua chapter two who risked her own life hiding the men of God, verses nine-eleven:

“And she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.

For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Rea Sea for you, when you came out of Egypt; and what you did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed.

And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: THE LORD YOUR GOD, HE IS GOD IN HEAVEN ABOVE, AND IN EARTH BENEATH.”

She goes on to ask that that if she has been of help, that they spare her and her family and Joshua 6:25: ” And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father’s household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even to this day (her descendants) because she hid the messengers, which Joshua had sent to spy out Jericho.”

So she believed in God and acted on that faith in trusting Him she did what was right even when it could have gone terribly wrong, she BELIEVED that He would reward her for her faith.. and HE DID! 

And we see also in our verse from James, that he stops to point out that it IS good to believe, but the DEVILS ALSO BELIEVE, they KNOW God is real but yet the try to destroy the Kingdom and all that God holds dear. 

But he is saying that we must also use that faith, that trust in God to step out into what God is calling you, leading you to do. And remember that if God goes before you your enemies are more afraid that you may even know because it is HIM, His name and His work that IS IN YOU when you are IN Him.

 I want to encourage you today and I want to share my own story, not that I will never be in the league of these people but our stories are our stories and they are for today and they are for the Rea Seas of our generations, and the walls of our generations Jericho.

My ministry, (may be not much to many but priceless to me) unbeknownst to me…was evidently given birth to from something as simple, yet so strange as dreaming in Greek, sounds crazy, I know, and you have to really believe and really believe that God does truly work in mysterious ways to get this.

I had been given promises and had been given my calling through prophecy and of course, the laying on of hands, just as the Bible tells us will happen, and I had been given words and promises during prayer at other times, things that although I never doubted God, I also never saw how these things would come to be.

And as I got into live ministry, it became more and more confusing to wrap my head around what I knew would eventually come to pass, our trouble as humans.. the more we try to understand the less we do, because it is not always our job to understand.. it is our job to BELIEVE in faith and walk out in that faith.

So years ago, after I had been called, I started having these dreams…reoccurring dreams of nothing but line after line written of what I thought (again, shouldn’t have been thinking ) was letters of the English Alphabet and strange symbols, no commas, no periods, no stopping just row after row.

So I told my prayer partner that I really needed prayer that I thought I was just losing it and she prayed and I still did not understand.. a couple of months later, my husband and I were watching a travel show and I saw a street sign and I was like, Oh my goodness, that IS it, it was Greek.

The letters that look like English, that look like a, o, k, p, i, v and so on are actually not English and the weird symbols, Φ, λ, π, and as I like to call it, “the pitch fork thingy” φ, are just part of the Greek alphabet.

Of course I would love to have those lines, and lines out of my head to decipher but I now believe that it was not for me to decipher but for me to “look at”, ponder and maybe see a “different” path of ministry that I would have never seen otherwise.

But you know, people could be like, the chick is just crazy… but crazy or not, the Bible proves that sometimes we are led “outside the box” and we are shown things for a brief moment just to see if we will do a double take and ask “What on earth…?” and when He has our attention, He will do exactly what ever He wants to do because we have shown that we are open to Him and willing to have for a work that we KNOW is IMPOSSIBLE for us but TRUST Him that if He said it, it would come to be.

Writing the Word had been in my heart, my soul, and I have notebooks upon notebooks of scriptures from years ago, because I felt the need to write things down, and write and write, and write… and I had written letters to the Editor when prompted and had an overwhelming need to share the Word of God in a written format because people could read it in private and it could deal with “heavier” subjects without people feeling like they were being stared at or judged, and if they wanted to cry, they could cry, they could receive it, read it, and respond any way they wanted because it was personal just between them and God.

But I could not see a way of this happening and I played around with a couple of ideas, but at the time, it was just not panning out. In the meantime, my prayer partner had told me about something they had seen while praying, it was a word, written on a very specific place (won’t get into that right now) but anyway they said it was beautiful and they could not read it because it was foreign, so now I am excited trying to figure out what all this means and how certain things are still going to take place, because sometimes as humans, we do not understand God’s timetable.

And what we think is coming next week, could still be ten years in the making. So God opened a door that blew my mind, a chance to write for a church, already established, already existing, NOTHING for me to have to do , as I had been thinking there would be, “to make happen”.

HE already had it all lined up. I did NOT have a computer, or internet, didn’t even know how to use a computer, all I had was my trusty typewriter, but EVERY step of the way, He showed me that if I would step OUT of my comfort zone, He would do the rest!

Now I honestly don’t know how I lived without this baby, but that is another story! 🙂 anyway, I prayed and prayed, and prayed, what to write, how to present it and I now had my trusty Bible Greek book, I purchased as I was “in search of” and I by absolute faith, took one word as my prayer word and just nonchalantly added it to the bottom of the blog , I thought, they are going to think I am really out there and disassociate themselves from me, but amazingly they didn’t.

And I later wrote a post to explain the meaning of the name DOWN LOW OΝ PHLOGIZO (Φλογιζω) and promised at some point in the future to elaborate further as to why it was in Greek.

As time went, I shared my posts with my prayer partner because I know the FAITH she had and the support she had given, and one day just as nonchalantly as I had written Φλογίζω at the bottom of my posts.. she said, “By the way, I meant to tell you, that word I saw, is ON the bottom of your posts.”

I was like.. I have looked, I have thought, I have prayed and it was staring me in the face every single time I wrote!

So let me ask YOU, what just might be staring YOU in the face today? What word has He given you? What path has He called your feet to walk but may seem just a little too far away to ever reach?

Be encouraged, look for what you can’t see and BELIEVE when you do see it, even if you don’t understand what you are even seeing, one day you will understand and I now know the “mountains” my feet were meant to “travel” on with the Gospel, maybe aren’t the faraway mountains of distant lands that I could not understand HOW I would ever travel to.

But the irony in all to “ιζω” Greek words, which my curious daughter discovered is actually archaic and “went out of style” and usage around the fifteenth century, and the suffix meant “reason” and we now use “ize” instead.. so you know like “evangel-ize“.. feet not on actual mountains spiritual feet travelling “upon the mountains, over the world-wide web.

So NOW I would ask you to please check out my newest venture, the third and final spiritual Greek baby “Εξυπνιζω”, as “Φλογίζω” meant to “set on fire”, and “inflame with passion” joined by “sibling” “Σαλπιζω”, which means to “sound a trumpet”, Εξυπνιζω the new one means “awaken” and the site name is “Alabaster Breaking” which is pretty self-explanatory, it will be mainly for His daughters, and Lord willing, I will continue this one also, but if you get a moment please check it out at http://alabasterbreaking.wordpress.com of course, there’s not much there yet.

Never doubt the will and purpose for your life and never take for granted that you are just dreaming in Greek!

Love & Peace, for ever and always!

Φλογίζω Σαλπιζω NBJ 2017

 

 

 

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Am I too late?

Most have experienced the pain of waiting too late. Too late in making a decision and living with that regret for years or sometimes life. Being late to an event or the fear that maybe you have already arrived too late and lost out on something you had long looked forward to, or feel that if you could only go back and change this or do that, everything would be different.

I feel like this goes on in the kingdom pretty often, people feel like they have waited too long in moving out into their calling, or they were hurt and rejected once they did step out, I promise you that is just part of the deal, you step out for the Lord you’re gonna be hurt AND rejected but take it for the compliment that it is! The enemy is NOT going to waste his time (because he knows it is short) fighting people for fun, he fights what he knows is a threat.

So they feel like they maybe they were mistaken about even being called, (another trick from the enemy) they feel they can’t “go back” to “that” church or “those” people because there is just “too much water under the bridge.”

Have you ever thought of it this way, maybe the WATER under that bridge is exactly what the enemy is trying to keep you out of! Maybe you think you missed your calling, waited too long, and too much time has passes, too many struggles have ensued… Got some good news on that story, what if you discovered one day that it was ALL part of the plan for your life to get you EXACTLY where you need to be spiritually in order to go EXACTLY where God wants to take you?

We’ve got two situations going here so we will hit the both, It is NEVER too late! Until you are dead and in the ground then it is too late to pursue the call of God on your life no matter if it was given fifty years ago because: “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance (ARE IRREVOCABLE).” Romans 11:29

Which means God is NEVER going to say, “Oh sorry, I really did not mean to give you that, let me just take that back.” NO it means He has given them for ever and ever.

And for whatever reason the have been unused I want you to be encouraged, get back up, get back on that boat, do not care who likes you, who doesn’t and do the will of your Father because it is Him that we answer to and sometimes, we are required to swallow our pride for the kingdom because pride does not belong in the kingdom and God ALWAYS deals with those who come against you and your calling, but if you hide it and refuse to use it, what reason would he have to exonerate you from your enemies, and prove them wrong?

Now to prove it is not too late, remember in Revelation when Jesus is warning and encouraging the churches as to what he expects of them, He is speaking to the church of Ephesus, who left their first love, I just want to use part of this verse, because these people WERE saved, their WERE known to Him, “Remember therefore from whence (where) thou art fallen, and repent, and DO THY FIRST WORKS;“ Revelation 2;5 (1)

So He is telling them DO your FIRST works. I want to get this out-of-the-way, I know there could be the argument against this, because of the verse “called in one hope of your calling” but if you do not accept your ONE hope on this earth to do your job, and use your calling, you sure aren’t going to need it in heaven or New Jerusalem because everyone there will already be saved.

So if you are reading this, rest assured it is NOT too late! I do want to warn you of a common snare with this, once “people” find out you are called, many of them can not wait to give advice and tell you what you should do” it is YOUR job from the Lord, HE will put in your heart or give to you by prophecy what you should do. Don’t need it please don’t listen to it unless you want to ask your Pastor, or prayer partner their thoughts on the best way to go about something, but please don’t let anyone influence you in your work for God, He calls us all differently.

Situation two, we’ll call, “You are growing, growing, growing” Think about David, do you realize that David was anointed THREE times, anointed means to be separated for a specific purpose, the first time He was only about fifteen years old, and this was done privately, only in the presence of his family,

1 Samuel 16:13:” Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren; and the spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day FORWARD…….”

From this point on, the spirit of God was with him, and even though he had ALREADY been anointed to be King, the time was not yet, and when he was sent to Saul, it was NOT as his replacement but as his harpist!

His next task would be to fight the mighty giant Goliath and I don’t even think David was even thinking about his future or the job he was already in training for, when he ran AT Goliath it was in confidence of the Lord, that no one was going to threaten and enslave the people of the Living God, and at NO point did he tell Goliath “I come to you as the future King” He told him that he came in “NAME of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel”.

He then went on to endure Saul’s insane jealously, hiding and fearing for his life, battling bloody battle upon battle, growing and growing into who he had been created to be.

He is anointed a second time, 2 Samuel 2:4,”And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah….” this time is publicly with his countrymen.

And on he goes… growing and growing, battling and battling, “friend” and foe, learning to deal with situations and all the qualities he would NEED, imperative to his success and survival. He has been anointed privately, publicly, and now he will be anointed and accepted by the elders as King over all of Israel.

“So all the elders of Israel came to the king, to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the Lord; and they anointed David king over Israel. David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years.” 2 Samuel 5;3,4

The fulfillment of that promise unfolded over the period of his life that he was fourteen, fifteen years old until he was thirty, and even NOW part of the divine purpose for the throne of David is STILL unfolding and will be until the return of Christ!

How much do you think he matured and grew and learned and developed over those fifteen odd years? What if he had given up half way through and decided to “rethink” what had been told to him at that private anointing?

David was successful in that long journey because he never lost focus of the big picture, and allowed himself to be exactly what Go wanted, a vessel and David knew that no army, no power, nothing of this earth could defeat God or stop His divine will for Israel and this is what keep David going… and going.. it was NEVER easy and I am sure he experienced many moments of absolute sorrow during those dark times but he always held on and we must also!

Do not give up on your calling! I love the story of Nehemiah and it has been encouragement many times for me personally, I actually have it written and taped in the front of my Bible, along with many other verses, we NEED this encouragement.

This took place  as Nehemiah set about to rebuild the wall and the enemies came forth to STOP THE WORK and I love this verse, Nehemiah 6:9; “ For they ALL made us AFRAID, saying, their hands SHALL BE WEAKENED FROM (because of) the work, that it not be done. NOW THEREFORE, O GOD, STRENGHTEN MY HANDS.”

This is a great verse to remember when “people” are telling you that “it” is impossible to accomplish what GOD SAID you could and trying to discourage you with the thought that the work is too hard and you can not possibly finish it.

Maybe what you think is a little too late could actually be right on time,”Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is NOT unto death, BUT FOR THE GLORY OF GOD, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When he heard therefore that he was sick, HE ABODE (stayed) TWO DAYS STILL IN THE SAME PLACE WHERE HE WAS. Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judea again.

His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou hither again? ( why are you going back)  Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in a day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.

These things said he; and afterward he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; But I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.

Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death; but they thought he had spoken of taking rest in sleep.

Then said Jesus unto them, plainly, LAZARUS IS DEAD. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, TO THE INTENT THAT YOU MIGHT BELIEVE;……John 11:1-15  most know the rest of the story.. the sisters go on to tell Him, if He had only been there, their brother would still be alive.

We often think about our pain in what we go through, but it was NOT easy for Jesus to allow them to go through this sorrow and everyone is crying and now HE IS crying also, and I ALWAYS have to point this out because it just tells you WHO HE IS, He KNEW that in matter of moments Lazarus would be very much alive, it just broke His heart seeing them hurt, it does break His heart to see His children cry, NEVER doubt that.

“Jesus said, Take ye away the stone, Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh; for HE HATH BEEN DEAD FOUR DAYS. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, IF THOU WOULDEST BELIEVE, THOU SHOULDEST SEE THE GLORY OF GOD?” John 11:39,40

As we know from the verses, He LOVED them, but Lazarus was allowed to die so the GLORY would be revealed. But it was not the END of Lazarus’s  story and EVEN four days dead was still not too late!  Just as He said, it was that the GLORY OF GOD WOULD BE REVEALED AND THAT THEY WOULD BELEIVE!

It may look dead, doesn’t mean it is dead! May just not be as late as you think it is after all! So if you find yourself asking.. “Am I too late?”, have faith.. it all may just be right on time!

Φλογίζω Σαλπιζω NBJ 2016

 

 

 

 

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The voice of Simon

“And one of the Pharisee desired (asked) him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisees house, and set down to meat (dinner). And behold, a woman a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisees house, brought an alabaster box (jar) of ointment. And stood at his feet, behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with her tears, and did wipe them away with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment (oil).

Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake WITHIN himself, saying This man, IF he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman THIS IS that toucheth  him; For SHE IS A SINNER.

And JESUS answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee, and he said, Master (Teacher) say on. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed him five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both, Tell me therefore, which will love him most?

Simon answered  and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most, and he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.

Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven: for she loved much; but to whom little is forgiven, THE SAME LOVETH LITTLE.” LUKE 7:36-47

The courage it took for Mary to walk into that room, she knew exactly what they all thought and Pharisees, oh what we could say about Simon, what if Jesus had taken him to school and told him every single sin he had committed? But Jesus does not work that way, but Pharisees do.

He really nailed them when he referred to them as white washed tombs FULL of dead men’s bones, they will gag at a gnat and SWALLOW a camel. These are they who openly thank God that they are “not like that tax collector” over there.

These are they who claim they know Him and their smug religious superiority allows them to look down on and constantly backbite and trash talk others, because after all how could HE SAVE such sinners as they know people to have been or be?

They are “raging waves foaming out of their OWN SHAME” and whether you are a new Christian or have been on the frontlines for the Lord for a while, you have, or will, or are experiencing the voice of Simon.

Male or female, religious snobbery and arrogance knows no gender or social status and if they can’t see to their standards what the Lord has done in you, then obviously IN THEIR OPINION, it has not been done, AND THEY WANT TO MAKE BLOODY SURE THAT YOU KNOW THAT AND THAT YOU ARE NEVER UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT YOU WILL EVER OUT RUN YOUR PAST!

That is what Simon wanted and his voice must be silenced in all of our ears, because when you know Jesus, you KNOW His voice! “But he that entereth in by the door IS the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice; and he CALLETH HIS OWN SHEEP BY NAME, AND HE LEADETH THEM OUT.

And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him; for THEY KNOW HIS VOICE. And A STRANGER THEY WILL NOT FOLLOW, BUT WILL FLEE FROM HIM; FOR THEY KNOW NOT THE VOICE OF THE STRANGER.” JOHN 10:2-5

Jesus is giving us comfort that yes, others voices may call, other voices will try to persuade us to follow, but WE know HIS voice, His voice is Gentle, encouraging, and always, always leading us AWAY from our past. The voices of the strangers want to lead you back into a life of lies, and bondage, a life of misery, and hopelessness, just like Simon, he didn’t care if Mary was saved, as far as he cared she could split hell wide open, in HIS EYES he was pure as fallen snow and her.. well, not so much. 

Now with the courage it took her to seek Jesus WHERE he may be found, cry at His feet with an audience of haters staring her down, she had it rough, and if you want to be saved and this is what it is going to require, openly acknowledging and worshipping the Lord in an atmosphere of contempt, may I encourage you to do it!

Just as He shut Simon up, He will shut up those who discourage you. Sometimes the Pharisees will try to hunt us down in on our own turf, barge their way into your personal worship space with the Lord, as the devil is the “accuser of the brethren, (God’s children) and ACCUSES them night and day before the Lord”, it is so imperative to not let it get to you, go right on with the Lord and that puts the ball in HIS court and I guarantee you, when He gets through with them it will be as when the Egyptian’s were GLAD to see the Hebrews go because the plagues of God and His hand had been so strong against them.

We can not change any situation but God will, IF we stay out of it, and do not try to fix it ourselves or speak on our own behalf, if you notice with that, Mary never said a word, not one word, JESUS spoke on her behalf, HE IS our lawgiver, our judge, our refuge, and our strength and HE WILL DEFEND HIS CHOSEN.

And I know that can be hard when your being hassled and your flesh really wants to cut loose, go completely off, and all kinds of crazy on the “Simons”, but once we have made that mistake, we have extracted our own vengeance, when we should have chosen God’s because His vengeance is perfection.

We’ve covered them there, and here, but what about when you are desperately seeking God and trying to find your way? Most dangerous place of all and a hotbed of “Simons” the place that after salvation, we can get a little lax in “opening up” to Him and His will, and waiting too long to answer “His call” growing cold and lukewarm, realizing the mistake, dying to yourself, and start your “search”.

” I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped (dripped) with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock. I opened up to my beloved; but he had withdrawn himself, and was gone; my soul failed when he spake (heart went out in longing); I sought for him; but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.

The watchmen that went about the city found me, and they smote (struck) me, and they WOUNDED me; the keepers of the walls TOOK AWAY my veil from me.” SONG OF SOLOMON 4:5-7

Now that is some damage, the kind of damages, “Simons” can cause, if you listen to them and do not stay close to God and KNOW who you are in Him, no matter how hard they try to convince you otherwise, even while taking “your veil”, like Simon tried, by arguing who you are or were. Little harder to bounce back from that, but it this story, she bounces back with a new determination to show the world His love.

So now we know what we don’t want to listen too, please let me give you a couple of sharp swords of the word to help in your battle:

#1. HIS VOICE, HIS VOICE, HIS VOICE! “FEAR NOT; for thou shalt NOT be ashamed: Neither be thou confounded (disgraced); for thou shalt NOT be put to shame: for thou shalt FORGET the shame of thy youth… ISAIAH 54:4

#2. “In righteousness thou shalt be ESTABLISHED; thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt NOT fear: and from terror; for it shalt NOT come near thee. Behold, THEY shall surely gather together (come against you) but NOT BY ME (God does NOT send them) WHOSOEVER SHALL GATHER AGAINST THEE SHALL FALL FOR THY SAKE. ISAIAH 54:14,15

#3. NO weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and EVERY tongue that SHALL RISE AGAINST THEE IN JUDGMENT (bad mouthing you) THOU SHALT CONDEMN. THIS IS THE HERITAGE OF THE SERVANTS OF THE LORD, AND THEIR RIGHTEOUSNESS IS OF ME.” ISAIAH 54:17 

Great comfort because Jesus casts all our sins and transgression into the “sea of forgetfulness” and NEVER remembers them again, and “as far as the east is to the west” those sins are from his mind and that is how far they should be from your mind also. I know days are just days, but with the new year we can consider it the perfect time to tell all the old “Simons” to be forgot and listen NO MORE to their voices.

But challenge ourselves in the new year to listen to the voice of our Shepherd, who will tell you that you ARE new, you ARE clean, and those filthy rags that were your righteousness have now been exchanged for the glorious garment of HIS righteousness which covers you completely in HIs love, His protection, and under the shadow of His mighty wings!

Φλογίζω Σαλπιζω NBJ 2016

If you have been hurt by words and people who just keep trying to remind you of your past, and keep trying to convince you that you have no future, PLEASE, PLEASE listen to this song, I STILL can not hear this song without crying because it has been so perfect for my heart and my walk and many, many trips with the “Simons” that have tried to make me doubt Jesus, but I KNOW Jesus, and I know from “miles and miles away LOVE saw (me)there and stretched out His hand to save (me) across the lonely ocean of (my) tears and he’ll walk upon the waves to save (me) if that’s what it takes” If you’ve been going through this, Please just listen to the voice of Jesus, because no one else died for you and no one else can save you and love you as He does! Simons looking for me can find me at the feet of the only one whose thoughts matter to me.

 

 

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“Feet First”

Beauty, what a word. What a list of infinite definitions. EVERYONE has a different definition of what is beautiful and yet we often find ourselves feeling the pressure of a senseless society to attempt to obtain those unclear and ever evolving levels of the standard of beauty.

This had been rattling around in my head for quite a while, but once I began to pray the way He led me was quite unexpected. With the holiday happenings, most of us feel that we NEED to look our best and of course with the busiest time of the year, that is sometimes even harder and once nature and time comes into play… well the temptation of all the vast beauty “solutions” become harder to resist.

We all have “THOSE” people to deal with, you know the ones that you really don’t know if they are a “test” on patience and tongue bridling or if they are just sent from the devil to make you feel inferior and that your head belongs in a  bag.

The root of it has NOTHING to do with how we really look, it has to do with our perceived ACCEPTANCE and self-worth and all the Botox in the world cannot produce the true glow of what God has ordained to shine in us.

And I know so many ladies who suffer the onslaught of remarks and jabs at their self-worth. Our family actually knows one lady who manages to insult everyone that she runs into. She is a constant barrage of “You are looking old, you need to get something done” and forever running down others who are not even present, with so and so “Sure has let themselves go” and she seems to have a chart of exactly what each person should weigh, and in her mind she is the score keeper on status quo of how we all should appear.

My family and I ran into her awhile back and I seriously prayed the entire time, I was like Lord, please don’t let her start because if she hurts one of mine with her words,  I really don’t know that I could not have “returned” her the favor with some advice of my own concerning her own appearance. But Jesus is awesome like that, she did not say a word, I’m sure she said plenty the moment we were gone but I know those biting words “come out of the abundance of her own heart” and that is truly sad.

I detest hearing anyone comment on people’s weight and have lost the control over my tongue on more than one occasion. I hate it, probably because I struggled and struggled being skinny and flat chested (still flat chested) during my teen years as my friends “blossomed” and all I heard was “that a good puff of wind could blow me away” you often hear the hurtful remarks in the other direction but believe me, people are mean because they are just mean and they will find a way to hurt you no matter your size because your size is really not their issue.

The issue is to hurt you to feel better about themselves. Funny story with that, my husband briefly worked with a guy that we hadn’t seen in probably twenty years and my husband said one of the first things he had asked was about my weight, a few weeks later, Lo, and behold, “test?/temptation?”  we ran into him and I truly could have had a sadistic field day going off on his fallen attributes, but I didn’t, sure is nice to know my body shape meant so much to him.

God has brought me  along way from that little girl who so desperately needed acceptance, because the acceptance I needed to gain COULD never be achieved, not through make-up, not through dating a virtual army, not through any one man because who I need to “prove” my worth to no longer existed and would have never accepted it, if I were dipped in gold I would still have been utterly worthless.

But see THIS is where all this comes from in all of us and society has run wild with it. I do not own a scale, and I will never allow one brought into my home, I don’t need the drama, I’m going to weigh what I am going weigh.  I do wrestle with fear that Marty Stuart is gonna call and want his hair back, (no offense to him, it looks good on him, not so much on me) while other days the clowns would declare me their leader because the “fro knows” and the fro knows humidity well, and it will burst through any styling product with an absolute vengeance and all the lines, droops and scarves made of neck flesh bear witness to the fact that the old “Brown” mare ain’t as young as she used to be.

But when my thirty-six year old niece who is very beautiful informed me that she wanted to get the new “double chin” therapy, I was just disturbed. This is a major epidemic and there are plenty of celebrities that have taken plastic surgeries to the extreme in searching for the fabled fountain of youth that they now look more like cartoon characters and there is nothing remotely attractive about any of it.

So here is what He enlightened me to, because we know He does not approve of vanity, intentional or unintentional and THERE IS NOTHING WRONG IN WANTING TO LOOK YOUR BEST, He wants us to feel beautiful, but BEAUTIFUL IN HIM, that does not start looking in the mirror at our own face, nor does it start by looking in the eyes of another for approval.

It does not start with hair, faces, bodies, clothes or any other decorative ornamentation known to man. It happens feet first and works its way up.  REVELATION 4:11 : ” Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for THOU HAST CREATED ALL THINGS, AND FOR THY PLEASURE THEY ARE AND WERE CREATED.”

That includes US. We all have some type of creativity because God puts that in all of us, whether it is culinary masterpieces, floral arranging, crafts, sewing, woodworking, pottery, on and on, but we ENJOY what we create and we create it they way WE want it. So also, HE CREATED US, THEY WAY HE WANTED US.

Beauty is not found in the three-inch heels encasing the soles of our feet, it is found in our souls touching HIS feet and “uncovering” that mystery, it is an intimacy and a place of humble worship, not worshiping the fashion gods, but worshipping the true and living God. True beauty is found not in becoming obsessed with our “beauty” but becoming obsessed with HIS BEAUTY.

And that my dear friends is from the inside out and will rock you to your core and produce a glow that everyone will know. Now why do I think you have to pursue this?

Humility, a fully aware willingness to surrender, willingness to submit, all those “s” words that strike horror and outrage into our proud little minds in our new self-righteous, always right society, to a being that is supernatural, all-powerful, and holds life, death and heaven and hell in His hand and allow His complete control over your soul, your body, your will and allow Him to take you into that inner sanctum of His Holy Presence where you will worship in the absolute BEAUTY OF HIS HOLINESS and there you will find your self-worth and you will find a beauty that can never be bought, dyed, or injected into you.

How do I know that we “resist” this intimacy with the Lord? Our go to book on issues of the church concerning her King;

Song of Solomon:1:7: ” Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flocks to rest at noon: for WHY SHOULD I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?”

Wasn’t a question of love, the love was there, it was a question to the submission in humility, she wanted all the answers up front, she questioned WHY SHOULD she have to appear to be of a more questioned character, WHY should she have to “lower” herself in her pursuit of him? It would be good enough for “others” to do that, but oh, no not her. See the religious snobbery there? Remember we were created, we did not create Him.

You can see the foreshadowing for this need of surrender, and not just surrender to salvation, in Ruth, we’ll pick it up as Naomi advised her in more or less a marriage proposal to Boaz, as he was by right a kinsmen.

RUTH 3: 3-11: “Wash thyself therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment (best clothes) upon thee, and get thee down to the floor: and make not thyself known unto the man, UNTIL he shall have done eating and drinking.

And it shall be, when he lieth down, that thou shalt mark the place where he shall lie, and shalt go in, and uncover his feet, and lay thee down; and he will tell thee what thou shalt do.”

Want to stop there for just a second, notice she listened to wisdom, she was clean and presented herself at her best (take that spiritually), she was to not interrupt him, as with Solomon’s “stir not up my love until he pleases” WE WAIT ON THE LORD, not jump up and down and demand an audience with him, she was then to uncover his feet, that place of intimacy and THEN LAY HER SELF DOWN, leaving all that she was, SO SHE COULD HEAR HIM.

Picking back up at verse five: ” And she said unto her, ALL that thou sayest unto me, I WILL DO. And she went down unto the floor, and did according to all that her mother in law bade her. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn: and she came softly, and uncovered his feet, and laid her down.

And it came to pass at midnight, that the man was afraid (startled), and turned himself; and behold, a woman lay at his feet. And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth, thine handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt (garment corner) OVER thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsmen.”

Think about the Lord “lifting up His countenance” on us, that is His  APPEARANCE, His protection, His covering all the way around us.

Verse 10,11: ” And he said, Blessed be thou of the Lord, my daughter: for thou hast shewed more kindness in thy latter end than in thy beginning, inasmuch as thou followedst NOT young men, whether poor or rich.

And now, my daughter, fear not; I will do to thee all that thou requires ( ask); for the city of people know that thou art a virtuous woman.”

Notice she was BLESSED of the Lord for not pursing the other “things” but pursing the RIGHT path. This union would ultimately produce King David and we will now pay a visit to another lady who laid herself at the feet of the ultimate production of that bloodline:

Mark 5:25-34: “And a certain woman which had an issue of blood twelve years, and had SUFFERED many things of many physicians, and had spent ALL she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse.

When she heard of Jesus, came in the press (crowd) BEHIND, and TOUCHED HIS GARMENT. For she said, IF I MAY TOUCH BUT (even) HIS CLOTHS, I SHALL BE MADE WHOLE.

And straightway,(immediately) the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus immediately knowing in himself that virtue (POWER) had gone out of him, turned him to the press and said, Who touched my clothes?

And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman fearing and trembling, KNOWING what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter,thy faith has made the whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.”

Now as most know, to have any bleeding made the woman unclean and under mosaic law, no one could go near her, but the beauty of Jesus is that transcends all laws and human conditions and she knew just making it to His feet would indeed heal her completely.

Mary proclaimed that her soul did magnify the Lord, when she was overshadowed by the Holy Ghost the magnification of His Presence through her and in her soul brought forth that conception, as His power went forth to heal the terrified lady at His feet, as Mary Magdalene found forgiveness, love, and unimaginable peace at His feet, we also will only find what we need in His presence.

Don’t buy into the world view of finding it any other way, don’t buy into the lies that you are of a lesser value based on idiotic notions of this world. You will never know who you are or what beautiful really is until you lay yourself, all of yourself, all the insecurities, hurts, wounds down and “uncover” the truth of time well spent at the feet of the only one worthy of praise, the only one who possesses true beauty and the only one who can make you feel beautiful when His love beams through you.

1 SAMUEL 2:1-4: “And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord, mine horn is exalted in the Lord: my mouth is enlarged (smiles) over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy salvation, There is NONE holy as the Lord: for there is NONE beside thee: NEITHER is there any other rock like our God. Talk no more exceeding proudly; let NOT arrogancy come out of your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty men are broken; and They that stumbled are girded with strength.“

Φλογίζω Σαλπιζω NBJ 2016

 

This is absolutely my favorite Praise and worship song. And so perfectly descriptive of Him.

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“Gazingstock”

1 CORINTHIANS 4:9-13: “For I think that God hath set forth (displayed) us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death; for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to the angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake ( the world opinion) but ye are wise in Christ; we ARE weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we ARE despised.

Even unto the present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked (poorly clothed), and ARE buffeted (beaten) and have no certain dwelling place; and labour, working with our own hands: BEING reviled, we bless; BEING persecuted, we suffer (endure) it. BEING defamed (slandered) we entreat (encourage): we ARE made the filth of this world, and ARE the offscouring of all things unto this day. ”

We often think of the Apostles as almost super human, almost as if, had they needed to, they could have run through stone buildings.

We are half right, considering that they, with the exception of Paul hung out with Jesus and SAW Him ascend into heaven and combined they were FREED by angels, SAW demons cast out and SAW the dead resurrected back to life.

BUT the super part belonged to the LORD the other is just human!
As we read the verse above, nothing about that sounds glamorous, or remotely desirable as a life style and these are the things we often forget.

I truly believe that this is what causes so many “new” Christians to slip and some seasoned ones to misplace their robes and end up wearing a coat made of jade 

For the most part it is preventable.

Once we accept Christ, and especially if we have been given the gift of the Holy Ghost, we have that wonderful newness.

Everything IS brand new, WE ARE New but then life, emotions, and the enemy come and often no one has ever told the “new” person that what they are going through is NORMAL for the course and no one helps them through that maze and they end up lost in it and give up even trying to find their way home.

The second group comes into play, as often having a fight with hell all the way to the altar and sometimes passed the altar and into the water because they have a call on their life.

And once they do make it “in” that fight only intensifies and I really, really wish I could give a “one word will make it all go away” answer right here.

BUT it does not exist.
Once this particular spiritual warfare has been engaged, it can not be disengaged because:
#1. The calling of God on lives is determined before birth and “they do not expire until we do.”
#2. Giving up is not an option, you will lose your salvation, and everything you have ALREADY fought through will have been for nothing.
#3. Outside of the will of God and without His protection, satan will chew you up and spit you out.
#4 Your fall will affect every single person you love and all those whom you were to minister to.
#5 THE most important reason is that JESUS died for you and saved you and He will NEVER let you be tested beyond what you can handle and a servant can not be above His Master, to reign with Christ we must suffer with Christ.
“Think It not strange…” sometimes battles are so fierce and dark that you can not even see daylight but you must remember you war against principalities and powers of the air.

I don’t know how I would have ever made it had God not blessed me with the people he did in my life and ministers that would share their own personal battle stories and some so hard to fathom, that my problems would pale in comparison.

Without the knowledge that these things happened to people whom I knew were Godly and doing their best in their walk, I could have never kept my head above water, I held onto every single word and would remember their stories and how they got through it and that they were still standing and that I serve the same God.

HEBREWS 10:32,33: “But call to remembrance the former days, in which after ye were illuminated (enlightened), ye ENDURED a GREAT FIGHT OF AFFLICTIONS (struggle with sufferings); partly, (in part) whilst ye were made a GAZINGSTOCK (SPECTACLE) BOTH BY REPROACHES AND AFFLICTIONS (tribulations) and partly (in part) whilst YE BECAME COMPANIONS OF THEM THAT WERE SO USED (treated).

What can we say there?

The days after your salvation, such a GREAT FIGHT with sufferings and troubles. You were as one that the world would look at and stare upon, as one in medieval stocks for the entire village to mock and ridicule.
Reproaches of those who laugh at your salvation and the enemy who questions “Where is your God now?”

But it is due in part so that YOU CAN become who you are to become in Christ.

1 PETER 1;4-8,10: “Whereby are given unto us exceeding GREAT and PRECIOUS promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

And beside (along with) this, giving ALL DILIGENCE, ADD to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge: AND to knowledge temperance ( self-control); AND to temperance patience; AND to patience godliness; AND to godliness brotherly kindness; AND to brotherly kindness CHARITY ( love).
FOR if these thing be in you (are yours) and abound, they make you that YE SHALL NEITHER BE BARREN NOR UNFRUITFUL IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. Wherefore the rather brethren, GIVE DILIGENCE TO MAKE YOUR CALLING AND ELECTION SURE: FOR IF YOU DO THESE THINGS YE SHALL NEVER FAIL.”

So you have heard it from Paul and you have heard it from Peter, now they are some pretty reliable sources!!!

All these things WILL work to your good and all these things WILL produce every quality needed to be productive in the Kingdom of God.
If you are “new” please stay close and active in a good Bible believing church, read along with them, find ministers that you enjoy hearing and enjoy the word, don’t pressure yourself or let anyone else pressure you, the only opinion of you that should matter is God’s and He is awesome and will teach you all things.

Find a good prayer partner that you can trust, that can pray with you when life comes at you or temptation comes calling and if you fall of the boat, repent and get back on the boat!

And keep trying, IT WILL GET BETTER and IT WILL GET EASIER.
If you are in group two, seek the old paths and surround yourself with prayer warriors and try to spend time with older ones who have been there and done that and they WILL encourage you and give you godly advice that is imperative to stay on track in your calling.

And the best news is this, once you successfully war against an attack of the enemy, he will no more use that same weapon, because it is no longer effective.

Once you make it through a tough battle you will soon find that the battle made you stronger and you will be able to stand against attacks that would have put you out earlier in your ministry.

You will also be better at seeing attacks coming and be prepared more easily, not to say there will never be blind sides, but when it is said and done, you will be glad you stayed the course, because medals are not just given, they must be won.
Φλογιζω NB/2016

! Original post 02/2016.  Still battling blue screen, Please check out this blast from posts past!🐦

 

 

 

 

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AND YOU ARE?

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