Tag Archives: Joy

by

“Misplaced pearls”

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy; I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”And of course that was Jesus speaking in John 10:10

And you may be wondering just what that has to do with pearls… EVERYTHING! Pearls ARE precious, most of us own a strand,we wear them on important occasions, and days we just want to dress up a little but there is something so secret, so beautiful, so feminine that many of us love the feeling of wearing a strand of  beautiful pearls with our favorite pair of jeans.

WHY? What on earth could be so different about these perfect little orbs that sets them so far apart from other “jewels” that may be considered EVEN more beautiful like diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, or even jade and all stones semi-precious?

Could it because of the association pearls have ALWAYS been associated with PURITY and INNOCENCE?

Forever the choice jewelry of BRIDES everywhere and do you remember reading that I did write that this entire blog is stir up and awaken us to the realization that we are part of a soon to take place wedding?

THE WEDDING OF THE AGES, with the KING OF THE UNIVERSE AS THE GROOM, COMPLETE WITH A TRULY ANGELIC CHOIR, AND THE HOST OF HEAVEN AS HIS WEDDING PARTY! 

Revelation 20:9: “And he said unto me, Write, BLESSED ARE THEY WHICH ARE CALLED UNTO THE MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB.And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.”

And we are encouraged throughout the Bible to be prepared, to have on our “wedding garments” as John saw:

“And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, PREPARED as a bride adorned for her husband.” Revelation 21:2

And at this wedding we ALL get to wear our pearls! But sometimes we misplace them, or the “thief” comes and truly steals them, hides them from us, or just rips the strand apart and they plunge to the ground, whirling in  a hundred directions and landing a thousand miles apart and we are left with the task of trying to recover every single pearl and restring the entire necklace.

But you know, we are not that talented because our true pearls were master crafted and ONLY He can put that necklace together again.

One of the ways pearls have been worn over the ages is a symbol of mourning because the little seed pearls look like tear drops and pearls were chosen by brides as a representation of purity, chastity, innocence, beauty, and mostly importantly for here, NEW BEGINNINGS.

Spiritually we are BORN with those beautiful pearls AS a gift from our Father when He created us.

And THOSE pearls ARE our innocence, our purity, and our beauty in Him. But LIFE and the enemy have  a way of sneaking in and either getting us to take off those pearls and lay them aside and sometimes in moments of repeatedly putting them on, only to decide to take them back off, we end up misplacing them.

And sometimes we have taken them off, laid them down on a nightstand and the enemy has stolen them, hid them, and laughed as we beg for them back.. all the while telling us that had we really wanted them we would have never been in that bed anyway and now we don’t deserve them back.

And I think the hardest would be when you did not take them off, the enemy came with destruction and ripped them off your neck and being left absolutely helpless trying to gather them through your tears as they roll across the floor.

Can you see it? Can you see the innocence and the purity that the enemy HAS stolen, killed, and destroyed concerning the sisters and daughters IN the world and those who are SAVED and STILL struggle with surrendering completely to God for fear of what the enemy has LIED to them about?  

Jesus IS the RESTORER, He wants nothing more than to RESTORE every single part of us. We are the ones who have the problem actually LETTING Him do that because we are often so afraid to let Him see what needs shown, EVEN though He already sees it, He already knows it.

You can be saved and still be holding on to something so deep, so painful that whether you know it or not really does IMPACT everything about your life, your happiness, and your joy. And to have true fulfillment in who He created you to be and who He wants you to be on this earth, you have to ask yourself, Where are those pearls?

And if NONE of this applies to you, that is great and just pray for the 99.9% that it does apply to.

Virginity or rather the loss thereof.. which is usually, in our present world the real point that starts so many women down the spiral to places He never intended His daughters to walk because that is something so precious and was only EVER meant to be shared in a holy union and that is why so many women have felt disillusioned, lost, and instead of feeling loved, have been left feeling completely empty and this sets them up to repeat this over and over again because so many feel like once that have started this path, the can never go back BUT I promise you can get off that path any time you choose.

Our society has brain washed women into giving themselves completely away simply because the world tells them that is what they are supposed to do.

Satan IS a liar and the father of lies, you will never find “love” in anything the world has to offer and sex is just satan’s completely carnal counter to what God had intended to be beautiful and it will never make you feel anything, when it is all said and done, than worse than you did before it happened.

Virginity is an absolute blessed state. So taking that obvious “loss” off the table. Pearls can be lost and damaged by our relationships to our father’s, fathers are supposed to protect us, nurture us and not everyone has that relationship or if you have had a father who is just emotionally distant, you are losing the pearls of security knowing that someone is looking out for you and that there is someone who will love you unconditionally and dry all your tears.

Maybe you had a great childhood and a wonderful Dad but marriage was the misplacement of your pearls.

If trust is broken when you have given someone your heart, your life, every part of all you are and it is supposed to be forever and either he turns out to be a jerk or worse a cheating batterer, because those two go hand in hand, well that is a recipe for a whole different disaster.

So, if as you have read this, you are feeling tears swell up just a little, I want to challenge you, we all KNOW our hearts, we all KNOW our hurts, wounds, and raging resentments, write them down, in your own private time, write them down, every single thing as far back as you can go that has hurt you, made you question your self-worth, and especially things that have made you feel like you have lost “yourself” and of course it is going to hurt and it will probably hurt like no tomorrow. 

Don’t be surprised if you see things that you never noticed, times where people were manipulating you and you never realized, times that you can see in retrospect that led to bad decisions and self-destructive behavior later on.

If you worry someone will find your innermost secrets, burn it or shred it in  a million pieces and flush it when you are through.

But it is necessary because it frees you and helps you recognize things for what they really are.

Wounds, memories, and mistakes that DO NOT define who you are, and we have to acknowledge these areas in order to TRULY give it all to Christ.

He is a perfect gentleman and He wants to help you and make all things new and HE DOES already KNOW every single detail of your life BUT He will not force His way into your life, but wants you to come to Him, KNOWING that He does NOT judge you and will NOT be asking WHY on earth did you do that?

Nor will He ask, WHAT were you thinking? He is nothing like anything most have been taught and I promise once you start “searching” for those pearls and being honest about “where” your life, in your past they had been misplaced or “where” they were stolen or THOUGHT destroyed by an event that you HAD NO CONTROL over.

HE CAN MAKE IT ALL NEW, I can not stress that enough, And I promise once that “alabaster” starts to crack, you will know, you will probably feel like your cracking too, but we HAVE to break to be made new and HE WILL NEVER LET YOU BREAK BEYOND REPAIR, so do not be afraid, LET HIM hold you and wipe away every tear and place upon your neck an even more precious strand, whose cost is beyond measure, and this new strand will never be misplaced again.

Join me next time and we’ll check out some alabaster!

Εξυπνιζω NBJ 2017 Reverend Nina Brown Johnson

Love this song! And this IS what you need to know!

*Authors note* This series originally posted on “Alabaster Breaking”, my sister site, that no longer exists. I found it very difficult to maintain both sites and just transferred those posts to this, my main site. Thank you

by

AWAKENING / THE FORGOTTEN CHILD

 

“Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?

I raised thee up(awakened) under the apple tree:…”  Song of Solomon 7:5

The wilderness the daughters of God have been very acquainted with since the dawn of time.
Since the fall of man, the enemy has ensured that we would be considered no more than property and every day countless of us are raped, abused, forced into prostitution and in many countries we are still property at the complete mercy of often unmerciful husbands.

While in other corners of the world, unable to carry lineage names daughters are aborted and others sold into slavery.
Christianity of old.

Tainted by MEN also seemed to teach that women are inferior but the truth is far from that.
My biggest struggle in coming to Christ was this very topic, I was like, Why are women always the bad ones? Misguided teaching of confused or intentionally biased doctrine has kept many away and who could blame them?
Many modern women who have been left to support their children completely alone, who have struggled to pay their bills, put food on their tables, educate themselves and their children, just barely surviving through the world.

And if they happen into the wrong church they will hear that they are of a lesser value to God than their male counterparts. To “fit in” they will need to change everything about themselves and sit down and above all shut up.
Even after God had enlightened me to the truth and helped me understand his word, I still had trouble wrapping my head around a few things.
I did most of intense studying before my child was school aged, after everyone was asleep and my house cleaned, I would stay up and read until I could not function any longer.

One night I happened upon Judges 19 which in my opinion contains the most disturbing and gruesome story in the entire Bible.
It mirrors the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, ironically found in Genesis 19, when Lot had offered his virgin daughters to the deviant, demon possessed pagans, who were demanding he turn over his male visitors to them, “that they may know them” translated, so they could gang rape them.  

The Bible clear to point out that Lot offered these girls with a “do whatever you want to them” agreement to try to get them to take them instead of the male visitors.

To break Judges 19 down, a Levite had a concubine, it says she “played the harlot”.
I’m not sure how that worked since she was “kept” for that purpose, double standards of the day, which still equate in our culture as the difference between a guy being a “player” and a woman being a “slut”.

Another problem Jesus addressed when he came to earth, he wants two people married, period.
Enlightening them to their double standards when they wanted judgment against the adulterous woman, of course it takes two, but they seemed to have forgotten to bring her partner in this sin before the Lord, His answer to them translating to this, if they themselves had no sin, go ahead hit her.

Standing in front of a Holy God they couldn’t do it.

But at the time of Judges, men could have as many women as they wanted but it was never God’s plan.
To get on with the story, she went back to her father’s house, so he comes after her to talk her into coming back, finally she agreed, and after being detained several days they went on their way.

He refused to stay anywhere other than lands belonging to the tribes of Israel and insisted on traveling to a city of the tribe of Benjamin, they had nowhere to stay, so an old man invited them to stay with him, pleading that they not stay outside, soon just as with Sodom, there were men at his door demanding he turn over this man to them that they “may know him”.

Picture perfect to Sodom, only lacking the presence of the angels that saved Lot’s daughters. So the old guy offers his daughter and the concubine, again with the agreement to whatever they wanted to them, just do not touch the man.

They refused, they still wanted the man, so the guy just takes the concubine and throws her out to them and they repeatedly gang rape her until the morning and then they let her go.

She makes it to the door of the house where she collapses, she just lies there helplessly until he gets up, opens the door and finds her and he actually tells her quite simply, to get up they have to get going, needless to say she is dead.
He dismembers her body into twelve parts and sends a part to each of the tribes and war is waged.
It wasn’t that they raped her or that she was dead that bothered him, it was because they destroyed his property.

I read this and I was alone with my shock and absolute horror and knowing the Lord, I just asked “Why, Why are we of so little value?”
These “men” would not even try to fend off these monsters, not even try to muster up an ounce of anything remotely resembling courage to fight for themselves.

Forget chivalry, or protection, an ounce of some sort of compassion, but to just offer these women as less than nothing and to do it to save themselves. I just could not understand it.

I do understand that at the time the thought of this being done to men was so unthinkable that they were desperate to prevent it. But they could have tried to prevent it for happening to any of them.

The God I know would never sanction this stuff or ever condone it and I was in tears, and it just hit me to keep reading, the bottom line is this, at the very end of Judges, “In those days there was no king in Israel: Every man did what was right in his own eyes.”

This was never God!

He never put these things in men’s hearts and for years it was falsely taught and still is in many places.

Men still do what is right in their own eyes and only God can make them see the truth.
But it is time for the awakening of his daughters.

No matter what false beliefs that women have been brainwashed by, we have to let them know that this is not what Jesus is about.
He does not hate women and did not create us to be objects of amusement to fulfill the twisted lusts of men nor to be their gender indentured servants.

If we are ever to see those that are oppressed be saved and free, they have to know the truth about him and who he is and most of all who they are in him.

A forgotten child, much like David, when no one would even waste their time to call him to be presented before Samuel the Prophet, because in their eyes why would a prophet possibly want to speak with someone so unimportant and simple?

A forgotten child from the greatest of tribes, who just happened to be a woman, a sister to the twelve tribes of Israel, a forgotten child that no one bothers to mention because she was not as important as her brothers, or so they thought.

Dinah, the seventh child Leah bore to Jacob, a woman who also a thing or two about pain and substandard treatment, who had been raped and used as a bargaining chip which led to a mass slaughter.

Her bloodline STILL offering an inheritance. because she was one of the tribe.

The most prophetic beauty with Dinah is the meaning of her name, “JUDGEMENT.”

It is awakening time for the sisters, the beautiful, forgotten army who have a straight shot to the heart of the Father.

You are so strong, so powerful, and yet, you do not even know WHO YOU ARE in HIM, and so unaware of your predestined place in this end time end game.

You are the spiritual virgins and maidens forever following to proclaim the majesty, beauty, and holiness of the Kings of Kings.

It is the love and proclamations that Hannah, and Mary, and never forget Mary Magdalene, He came to her first because she needed him the most.

Take your place in the kingdom, it is not going to be accomplished with half an army.
The adoration and praises from hearts that have known sorrows and pain that men can never begin to understand.

A relationship to God who will bring justice for others on behalf of the cries of the souls of his daughters.
Unlike the time of Judges, unlike the women who are your sisters the world over, who are oppressed and in bondage. 

You have access to a King, the King, and The King over heaven, and earth, and the entire universe, He will plead their cause if you bring them before his throne in that secret prayer closet.
He will bring justice for those your tears flood the altar for, when you allow your soul to be awakened under that tree, awakened by a love so strong, so powerful, so consuming that you wear that love as a covering for the whole world to see.

“I AM the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among the thorns so is my love among the daughters. as the apple tree among the trees of wood so it my beloved among the sons.

I sat down under his shadow with great delight his fruit was sweet to my taste.  He brought me into the banqueting house and his banner of me was LOVE”  Song of Solomon 2:1-4

Translated: KNOW HIM for who HE IS, allow his love to bloom in you, in spite of the valleys and thorns, breathe in his sweetness and lift you up out of those ashes and hide in the secret place of the Most High, under the shadow of his wings, taste the goodness of his salvation and let him bring you into his house of feasting and the love of Jehovah Nissi is his war flag over his daughters and the love is the secret to it all.

Φλογίζω / 02/05/2015. All rights reserved. Rev. Nina BrownJohnson 2015

For later posts in the realm of all things feminine, check these out:

Resurgence of Ruth

 “Misplaced pearls”

“Something needs to break”

“Grinding the ax” 1 “acknowledgement”

“Grinding the ax” 2… “Real Love?”

“Grinding the ax” #3 “Anger Danger”

“Grinding the ax” #4 “STRANGLE HOLD”

REVISTED:08/01/2019  I like to revisit these older posts, because sometimes we just need to be reminded of who Jesus REALLY is and who he has called us to be in him.

 

 

 

 

by

“Misplaced pearls”

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy; I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”And of course that was Jesus speaking in John 10:10

And you may be wondering just what that has to do with pearls… EVERYTHING! Pearls ARE precious, most of us own a strand,we wear them on important occasions, and days we just want to dress up a little but there is something so secret, so beautiful, so feminine that many of us love the feeling of wearing a strand of  beautiful pearls with our favorite pair of jeans.

WHY? What on earth could be so different about these perfect little orbs that sets them so far apart from other “jewels” that may be considered EVEN more beautiful like diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, or even jade and all stones semi-precious?

Could it because of the association pearls have ALWAYS been associated with PURITY and INNOCENCE?

Forever the choice jewelry of BRIDES everywhere and do you remember reading that I did write that this entire blog is stir up and awaken us to the realization that we are part of a soon to take place wedding?

THE WEDDING OF THE AGES, with the KING OF THE UNIVERSE AS THE GROOM, COMPLETE WITH A TRULY ANGELIC CHOIR, AND THE HOST OF HEAVEN AS HIS WEDDING PARTY! 

Revelation 20:9: “And he said unto me, Write, BLESSED ARE THEY WHICH ARE CALLED UNTO THE MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB.And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.”

And we are encouraged throughout the Bible to be prepared, to have on our “wedding garments” as John saw:

“And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, PREPARED as a bride adorned for her husband.” Revelation 21:2

And at this wedding we ALL get to wear our pearls! But sometimes we misplace them, or the “thief” comes and truly steals them, hides them from us, or just rips the strand apart and they plunge to the ground, whirling in  a hundred directions and landing a thousand miles apart and we are left with the task of trying to recover every single pearl and restring the entire necklace.

But you know, we are not that talented because our true pearls were master crafted and ONLY He can put that necklace together again.

One of the ways pearls have been worn over the ages is a symbol of mourning because the little seed pearls look like tear drops and pearls were chosen by brides as a representation of purity, chastity, innocence, beauty, and mostly importantly for here, NEW BEGINNINGS.

Spiritually we are BORN with those beautiful pearls AS a gift from our Father when He created us.

And THOSE pearls ARE our innocence, our purity, and our beauty in Him. But LIFE and the enemy have  a way of sneaking in and either getting us to take off those pearls and lay them aside and sometimes in moments of repeatedly putting them on, only to decide to take them back off, we end up misplacing them.

And sometimes we have taken them off, laid them down on a nightstand and the enemy has stolen them, hid them, and laughed as we beg for them back.. all the while telling us that had we really wanted them we would have never been in that bed anyway and now we don’t deserve them back.

And I think the hardest would be when you did not take them off, the enemy came with destruction and ripped them off your neck and being left absolutely helpless trying to gather them through your tears as they roll across the floor.

Can you see it? Can you see the innocence and the purity that the enemy HAS stolen, killed, and destroyed concerning the sisters and daughters IN the world and those who are SAVED and STILL struggle with surrendering completely to God for fear of what the enemy has LIED to them about?  

Jesus IS the RESTORER, He wants nothing more than to RESTORE every single part of us. We are the ones who have the problem actually LETTING Him do that because we are often so afraid to let Him see what needs shown, EVEN though He already sees it, He already knows it.

You can be saved and still be holding on to something so deep, so painful that whether you know it or not really does IMPACT everything about your life, your happiness, and your joy. And to have true fulfillment in who He created you to be and who He wants you to be on this earth, you have to ask yourself, Where are those pearls?

And if NONE of this applies to you, that is great and just pray for the 99.9% that it does apply to.

Virginity or rather the loss thereof.. which is usually, in our present world the real point that starts so many women down the spiral to places He never intended His daughters to walk because that is something so precious and was only EVER meant to be shared in a holy union and that is why so many women have felt disillusioned, lost, and instead of feeling loved, have been left feeling completely empty and this sets them up to repeat this over and over again because so many feel like once that have started this path, the can never go back BUT I promise you can get off that path any time you choose.

Our society has brain washed women into giving themselves completely away simply because the world tells them that is what they are supposed to do.

Satan IS a liar and the father of lies, you will never find “love” in anything the world has to offer and sex is just satan’s completely carnal counter to what God had intended to be beautiful and it will never make you feel anything, when it is all said and done, than worse than you did before it happened.

Virginity is an absolute blessed state. So taking that obvious “loss” off the table. Pearls can be lost and damaged by our relationships to our father’s, fathers are supposed to protect us, nurture us and not everyone has that relationship or if you have had a father who is just emotionally distant, you are losing the pearls of security knowing that someone is looking out for you and that there is someone who will love you unconditionally and dry all your tears.

Maybe you had a great childhood and a wonderful Dad but marriage was the misplacement of your pearls.

If trust is broken when you have given someone your heart, your life, every part of all you are and it is supposed to be forever and either he turns out to be a jerk or worse a cheating batterer, because those two go hand in hand, well that is a recipe for a whole different disaster.

So, if as you have read this, you are feeling tears swell up just a little, I want to challenge you, we all KNOW our hearts, we all KNOW our hurts, wounds, and raging resentments, write them down, in your own private time, write them down, every single thing as far back as you can go that has hurt you, made you question your self-worth, and especially things that have made you feel like you have lost “yourself” and of course it is going to hurt and it will probably hurt like no tomorrow. 

Don’t be surprised if you see things that you never noticed, times where people were manipulating you and you never realized, times that you can see in retrospect that led to bad decisions and self-destructive behavior later on.

If you worry someone will find your innermost secrets, burn it or shred it in  a million pieces and flush it when you are through.

But it is necessary because it frees you and helps you recognize things for what they really are.

Wounds, memories, and mistakes that DO NOT define who you are, and we have to acknowledge these areas in order to TRULY give it all to Christ.

He is a perfect gentleman and He wants to help you and make all things new and HE DOES already KNOW every single detail of your life BUT He will not force His way into your life, but wants you to come to Him, KNOWING that He does NOT judge you and will NOT be asking WHY on earth did you do that?

Nor will He ask, WHAT were you thinking? He is nothing like anything most have been taught and I promise once you start “searching” for those pearls and being honest about “where” your life, in your past they had been misplaced or “where” they were stolen or THOUGHT destroyed by an event that you HAD NO CONTROL over.

HE CAN MAKE IT ALL NEW, I can not stress that enough, And I promise once that “alabaster” starts to crack, you will know, you will probably feel like your cracking too, but we HAVE to break to be made new and HE WILL NEVER LET YOU BREAK BEYOND REPAIR, so do not be afraid, LET HIM hold you and wipe away every tear and place upon your neck an even more precious strand, whose cost is beyond measure, and this new strand will never be misplaced again.

Join me next time and we’ll check out some alabaster!

Εξυπνιζω NBJ 2017

Love this song! And this IS what you need to know!

*Authors note* This series originally posted on “Alabaster Breaking”, my sister site, that no longer exists. I found it very difficult to maintain both sites and just transferred those posts to this, my main site. Thank you

by

Finding Paris

“The wilderness and the solitary (desert, lonely, desolate) place shall be glad for them, and the solitary place shall be glad for them and the desert SHALL rejoice and BLOSSOM AS THE ROSE.” Isaiah 35:1

Finding Paris, strange I know but trust me this is not going to be a world travel post but hopefully a travel to the inner space of ourselves and all those emotions and hopes, and dreams that old man time tends to run roughshod over and with the passage of time we forget that we even had those dreams.

The notion of “romantic” Paris is probably as old as dirt but the mention of the name usually brings to mind, roses, beauty, the Eiffel tower, whose reach toward the sky can be quite a reflection of reaching higher and the sheer romance of all it all will stir the feminine heart in a way unlike any other place on earth.

When as little girls do we first have those feelings that we are DIFFERENT, is in when we sneak into the perfumes, jewelry, and all the “womanly” treasures often found on the dressers of our mothers?

And for me there was nothing quite like the beautiful stationery that my big sister used when writing mushy love letters to her boyfriend who was in the army.

I’d watch her put the gold seal on the envelope and could not wait until I was big enough to have fancy gold seals and write mushy love letters!

And there was nothing quite like sitting playing with my doll watching her and Mom try new lipsticks and hairdo’s together because I SO was going to wear make up and do my hair just like them one day.

And I know you have your memories of when all things feminine, and beautiful stirred in you.

No matter what kind of a childhood you have had, even if it was not influenced by your own mother, there was still a lady, a grandmother, someone that you looked up as a what being female was all about.

There is always still some thread in time that influenced you and stirred thoughts in your heart and your soul that led to the journey of “finding Paris”, that beautiful place of womanhood that we are all eventually led to.

With me I really had to hold on, after my sister married and my mom started worked the majority of my time was spent with my brothers and that could be a whole other post series!

Hard to stay focused on future femininity with daily wrestling, name calling, and “gas” contests going on constantly between them, but thank goodness for afternoon television visits with Ginger Grant 😉 

So WHAT were your hopes, dreams, and destination as you planned as a child? Bear them in mind.

Usually, we do find “Paris”, when we are around fifteen or sixteen, we blossom, discover our own style, we grow inside and become more self-aware, and often more assertive in being allowed who we want to be.

There is a freedom in knowing who we are as women but life changes so fast, especially when we are young.

As as the clock starts to tick the newness wearing off, things never quite measuring up to what our expectations had been, and real life sets in.

Soon the moon over the tower loses luster and doesn’t shine quite so brightly and the captivating scents of jasmine and lilac fade, and petals start to fall from those beautiful roses.

Life does that, bad relationships do that, like countless women who married young, married FOREVER, expecting the road ahead to be filled with happiness, family and Prince Charming only to find that Prince Charming was in reality, the Prince of Persia, (a Biblical reference to Lucifer) that lied, cheated, and battered them and always managed to convince them that they were to blame.

And choosing to leave, others have been faced with being single mothers, taking on the role of both parents, doing the back breaking work of often working two jobs to provide and the double duty task of feeding, clothing, laundry, housework, not one moment for themselves or to worry about what they may need or even want because their children come first.

Others, for a multitude of reasonings, become entangled in bad lifestyle choices and professions that leave you in place alright, but it certainly isn’t paris.

And those who have had good lives but have suffered loss of family, friends, and worse of their children, have actually lost parts of themselves and have a hard time trying to move forward because their hearts long for the happy days of the past, the days when the still had those who have gone on.

The dreams of long ago have but vanished and just making it through the day, week, or month becomes the focus.

No joy, no hope, and no more believing for a “magical” age or time when things will change because as we become jaded, we lose hope, we lose faith, and we lose the ability to see past circumstances to see that “paris” is still really there, it still exists, we just have to find our way back to it and we have to find a way to rekindle the desire to even want to go there.

Last time we talked about aging and the fact that TIME is NOTHING to God, AGE is nothing to God.

He has ALL power in heaven and earth, and time bends to his will.

The scripture above so perfectly reflects what goes on in so many of us, the wilderness, the places we find ourselves in but can’t find our way out.

The lonely deserts, lonely, barren times in life when it seems that nothing you have planted will ever grow and all your best efforts are met with scorching thirst.

But it is in journeying to this place that you will find refreshment, you will find joy, and your hard, dry places will blossom with a beauty you have never known, God created us to have all those wonderful feelings and He wants you to feel loved, beautiful, and precious, and priceless in Him and only He can renew, restore, and rejuvenate all the areas inside and out in each of us that need refreshed.

That really is what it all about, you are still you, you are still the same person you were when He created you, NOTHING can ever change your core being. If you find yourself in a desert you need to stop and take stock, don’t look at the desert, don’t beat yourself up or question how you ended up there.

Ecclesiastes 7:10: “Say NOT thou, What IS THE CAUSE that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.”

Which means that we are not to question that the past was better than our present and in doing so we are not asking the right question.

REMEMBER where you were going, what you wanted to accomplish, REVIVE your hopes, REMEMBER your dreams and ask God to show you what He wants you to see in that place.

It’s like the alabaster breaking, which will we soon get to, we have to want change, we have to be to the point that it is all or nothing and in that place your rose will again bloom and it will bloom abundantly and you will be made completely new.

Jesus NEVER touched or touches a life without that life being made COMPLETELY new, new thoughts, new joy, new peace, and a renewed hope that THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING and your life is a book not yet written. 

Of course, He knows the plans, but for us it is ALL BLANK PAGES AND A CLEAN SLATE and with that you can dream again, you can hope again, and you can feel beautiful, feminine, and BE exactly WHO HE CREATED YOU TO BE!

Don’t be so sure life is “over” when it has even yet begun!

So go, go find Paris! If you thought the first time was good, the second time is going to blow your mind! 

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33

Have A Blessed Week! Εξυπιζω NBJ 2017

 

 

by

“Something needs to break”

“And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat (at the dinner table), there came a woman having an alabaster box (flask) of ointment of spikenard,very precious (costly); and she brake the box and poured it on his head.” Mark 14:3

Before we begin, I do want to take one more opportunity to absolutely STRESS that these teaching CAN NOT be viewed with the carnal mind.

We live in the world and the world associates love, longing, and the desire to have ones soul entwined as something sensual and carnal but dealing with the teaching of Christ and the Church as His Bride and the love and extremely intimate relationship that He desires IS spiritual, IT IS the love of your soul, which is why it can not be viewed or studied without salvation and the understanding that all things have to be compared spiritually.

And there are so many sites dedicated to nothing more than what they consider “apostasy” and they assert that if someone has had an experience different from their own that they are obviously a heretic, and many denominations conclude that the outpouring of the Spirit, and the gifts, and especially tongues and prophecies were only for the time of the disciples, mainly during the writing of the book of Acts.

BUT they are wrong and the Bible even teaches us that there are different manifestations of the Spirit and I for one declare what I KNOW to be true and maybe they just need to pray to experience these things BEFORE they malign others. SO there is my disclaimer!

EVERYTHING is symbolic and ALL the teachings of the Bible APPLY to us now. God had it written through His Holy Revelation as a guidebook for all the generations that would come after its completion.

NOTHING else is needed and if anyone believes that those teachings are outdated or for certain times then how would He want us to navigate our way now? That is the trouble with that argument.

It DOES apply and the symbolism, once He has taught you to “read” it is where the answers to many of our questions are found. So on that note, let’s get going!

In our verse, she FOUND him, she made a CONSCIOUS effort to seek him, she did not wait for “fate” to allow her a chance meeting. We have to get out of the thinking that what we seek will “just happen” and “if it is meant to be it will” that may be all well and good, but  David PROCLAIMED in Psalm 27:8:

“When thou saidst, SEEK YE MY FACE, MY HEART SAID UNTO THEE, THY FACE, LORD, WILL I SEEK.”

Song of Solomon 3:1-4: “By NIGHT on my bed I SOUGHT HIM WHOM MY SOUL LOVETH, I sought him, but I found him not.

I WILL RISE now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I WILL SEEK HIM WHOM MY SOUL LOVETH; I sought him but I found him not. The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?

It was but a LITTLE that I passed from them, but I FOUND HIM WHOM MY SOUL LOVETH; I HELD HIM, AND WOULD NOT LET HIM GO….”

We are encouraged through theses verses and MANY more to SEEK, so IF we are already saved, WHY would we be told to SEEK?

Because there IS more, for David was to be promoted from shepherd boy to thrice anointed King, whose throne WILL stand forever.

I am sure the disciples would have been saved once they did indeed accept Christ as the Messiah, BUT it was when they heeded His words “FOLLOW ME” that their discipleship was enacted.

And our lady the church, in the above verses from Solomon, had SEARCHED and SEARCHED, and could NOT even sleep because her heart longed and searched for the ONE she knew that her soul must find.

And as those verse point out, finding him was NOT easy, she HAD TO RISE UP and move OUT of her comfort zone.

The “watchmen” evidently thought she was a little far out considering they ‘found” her, leading us to think that they questioned what on earth was she doing. But she told them, asking them Where is he? They were obviously of no help since we are told that shortly after she did find him and would not lose what she had found.

And that is about where Mary of Bethany found herself, she HAD sought and she found him at the dinner table and in her desperation, she did “pass by the watchmen” those that held the dinner that she had not been invited to, she CAME ANYWAY.

And that is sometimes what it takes to get some alabaster breaking, the willingness to not care what anyone else thinks of you or your worship of the Lord, how crazy they think you are or what a fanatic they accuse of being.

The ONLY thing she brought with her was her alabaster flask, alabaster in its purest form is snow white (dig, the symbolism) but it the iron it is exposed to that produces the faded color and “veining” but it remains translucent, and it’s softness it what makes it so delicate and easily carved and with enough water it will dissolve but under the wrong conditions it will become hard as any other rock.

Can you see “US”, our feminine state in the alabaster?

He does create us pure as snow, but enough hardness, hurt, and “iron” of this life will dull that white turning it as burnt amber with all the fine lines and cracks from those things that have almost broken us, forming the veining throughout the piece but it still retains its translucency, still allowing light to pass through, even in its darkened state, and while not a perfect image, what the vessel truly holds can still be somewhat seen through the marred surface.

We ARE the alabaster vessels, and the hardness will soften and vanish completely away once that “vessel” is washed over by  “living” waters.

Her flask held spikenard, still heralded as an anointing oil, but the secret to this is the flowers of the plant is comes from, the flowers are pink and bell-shaped, beautiful and fragrant, again super feminine, just like we like to be, we want to feel our best, feel feminine, and as the plant “wears” it’s pretty pink bells, so do we.

BUT what we see on the surface is NOT always a reflection of what lies underneath and this plants has some serious roots.

How about our roots? What lies beneath our surfaces, what is so deep, so horrid, so hidden, that we can not even bring ourselves to dig it up?

But to get this oil, you have to deal with the roots, and it is funny, if the roots are stored they are prone to bacteria and infection, they also have the ability to shoot off and grow more roots, (troubles) and it to get the oil the roots must be CRUSHED. Destroying the root BUT producing something so beautiful in return.

In our story it was EXPENSIVE, worth around a years wages, so in our spirits what is the worth of our OWN alabaster boxes?

What caused the fading, veining, and cracks? What was the price paid for everything contained in that vessel?

Tears, heartaches, betrayals, and mistakes, coercions, and outright attacks. Was that price so high that, like some of us, that the vessel is all you even have left? If you know there are things to be dealt with, roots that cost you your peace, joy, and happiness, cracks in that alabaster that has left you feeling worthless and unloved, or cheated and betrayed, or wounds of loss that seem to have destroyed any hope for your present, much less hope of a future. SEEK HIM.

Jeremiah 29:13 :”And ye SHALL seek me, and FIND me, when YOU SEARCH FOR ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART.”

Find him, take your vessel and BREAK IT, scripture says: Isaiah 53:5…..”the CHASTISEMENT of OUR PEACE was UPON HIM;…”

He GIVES us HIS peace when we are willing to break and allow everything in us to be poured out and if you are have trouble with things that just won’t seem to go away and fighting the same emotional battles over and over again, give it to Him because He wants to make you new but you have to let Him, and take the vessel of your heart, your soul, to him, your will, your fears, take it ALL,  it has to break, and those roots must be crushed, there is no other way.

True freedom is given at the feet of Jesus, your enemies can not touch you, your past can not haunt you, and those roots, once crushed will never sprout up again!

Εξυπιζω NBJ 2017

by

Finding Paris

“The wilderness and the solitary (desert, lonely, desolate) place shall be glad for them, and the solitary place shall be glad for them and the desert SHALL rejoice and BLOSSOM AS THE ROSE.” Isaiah 35:1

Finding Paris, strange I know but trust me this is not going to be a world travel post but hopefully a travel to the inner space of ourselves and all those emotions and hopes, and dreams that old man time tends to run roughshod over and with the passage of time we forget that we even had those dreams.

The notion of “romantic” Paris is probably as old as dirt but the mention of the name usually brings to mind, roses, beauty, the Eiffel tower, whose reach toward the sky can be quite a reflection of reaching higher and the sheer romance of all it all will stir the feminine heart in a way unlike any other place on earth.

When as little girls do we first have those feelings that we are DIFFERENT, is in when we sneak into the perfumes, jewelry, and all the “womanly” treasures often found on the dressers of our mothers?

And for me there was nothing quite like the beautiful stationery that my big sister used when writing mushy love letters to her boyfriend who was in the army.

I’d watch her put the gold seal on the envelope and could not wait until I was big enough to have fancy gold seals and write mushy love letters!

And there was nothing quite like sitting playing with my doll watching her and Mom try new lipsticks and hairdo’s together because I SO was going to wear make up and do my hair just like them one day.

And I know you have your memories of when all things feminine, and beautiful stirred in you.

No matter what kind of a childhood you have had, even if it was not influenced by your own mother, there was still a lady, a grandmother, someone that you looked up as a what being female was all about.

There is always still some thread in time that influenced you and stirred thoughts in your heart and your soul that led to the journey of “finding Paris”, that beautiful place of womanhood that we are all eventually led to.

With me I really had to hold on, after my sister married and my mom started worked the majority of my time was spent with my brothers and that could be a whole other post series!

Hard to stay focused on future femininity with daily wrestling, name calling, and “gas” contests going on constantly between them, but thank goodness for afternoon television visits with Ginger Grant 😉 

So WHAT were your hopes, dreams, and destination as you planned as a child? Bear them in mind.

Usually, we do find “Paris”, when we are around fifteen or sixteen, we blossom, discover our own style, we grow inside and become more self-aware, and often more assertive in being allowed who we want to be.

There is a freedom in knowing who we are as women but life changes so fast, especially when we are young.

As as the clock starts to tick the newness wearing off, things never quite measuring up to what our expectations had been, and real life sets in.

Soon the moon over the tower loses luster and doesn’t shine quite so brightly and the captivating scents of jasmine and lilac fade, and petals start to fall from those beautiful roses.

Life does that, bad relationships do that, like countless women who married young, married FOREVER, expecting the road ahead to be filled with happiness, family and Prince Charming only to find that Prince Charming was in reality, the Prince of Persia, (a Biblical reference to Lucifer) that lied, cheated, and battered them and always managed to convince them that they were to blame.

And choosing to leave, others have been faced with being single mothers, taking on the role of both parents, doing the back breaking work of often working two jobs to provide and the double duty task of feeding, clothing, laundry, housework, not one moment for themselves or to worry about what they may need or even want because their children come first.

Others, for a multitude of reasonings, become entangled in bad lifestyle choices and professions that leave you in place alright, but it certainly isn’t paris.

And those who have had good lives but have suffered loss of family, friends, and worse of their children, have actually lost parts of themselves and have a hard time trying to move forward because their hearts long for the happy days of the past, the days when the still had those who have gone on.

The dreams of long ago have but vanished and just making it through the day, week, or month becomes the focus.

No joy, no hope, and no more believing for a “magical” age or time when things will change because as we become jaded, we lose hope, we lose faith, and we lose the ability to see past circumstances to see that “paris” is still really there, it still exists, we just have to find our way back to it and we have to find a way to rekindle the desire to even want to go there.

Last time we talked about aging and the fact that TIME is NOTHING to God, AGE is nothing to God.

He has ALL power in heaven and earth, and time bends to his will.

The scripture above so perfectly reflects what goes on in so many of us, the wilderness, the places we find ourselves in but can’t find our way out.

The lonely deserts, lonely, barren times in life when it seems that nothing you have planted will ever grow and all your best efforts are met with scorching thirst.

But it is in journeying to this place that you will find refreshment, you will find joy, and your hard, dry places will blossom with a beauty you have never known, God created us to have all those wonderful feelings and He wants you to feel loved, beautiful, and precious, and priceless in Him and only He can renew, restore, and rejuvenate all the areas inside and out in each of us that need refreshed.

That really is what it all about, you are still you, you are still the same person you were when He created you, NOTHING can ever change your core being. If you find yourself in a desert you need to stop and take stock, don’t look at the desert, don’t beat yourself up or question how you ended up there.

Ecclesiastes 7:10: “Say NOT thou, What IS THE CAUSE that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.”

Which means that we are not to question that the past was better than our present and in doing so we are not asking the right question.

REMEMBER where you were going, what you wanted to accomplish, REVIVE your hopes, REMEMBER your dreams and ask God to show you what He wants you to see in that place.

It’s like the alabaster breaking, which will we soon get to, we have to want change, we have to be to the point that it is all or nothing and in that place your rose will again bloom and it will bloom abundantly and you will be made completely new.

Jesus NEVER touched or touches a life without that life being made COMPLETELY new, new thoughts, new joy, new peace, and a renewed hope that THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING and your life is a book not yet written. 

Of course, He knows the plans, but for us it is ALL BLANK PAGES AND A CLEAN SLATE and with that you can dream again, you can hope again, and you can feel beautiful, feminine, and BE exactly WHO HE CREATED YOU TO BE!

Don’t be so sure life is “over” when it has even yet begun!

So go, go find Paris! If you thought the first time was good, the second time is going to blow your mind! 

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33

Have A Blessed Week! Εξυπιζω NBJ 2017

 

 

by

“Something needs to break”

“And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat (at the dinner table), there came a woman having an alabaster box (flask) of ointment of spikenard,very precious (costly); and she brake the box and poured it on his head.” Mark 14:3

Before we begin, I do want to take one more opportunity to absolutely STRESS that these teaching CAN NOT be viewed with the carnal mind.

We live in the world and the world associates love, longing, and the desire to have ones soul entwined as something sensual and carnal but dealing with the teaching of Christ and the Church as His Bride and the love and extremely intimate relationship that He desires IS spiritual, IT IS the love of your soul, which is why it can not be viewed or studied without salvation and the understanding that all things have to be compared spiritually.

And there are so many sites dedicated to nothing more than what they consider “apostasy” and they assert that if someone has had an experience different from their own that they are obviously a heretic, and many denominations conclude that the outpouring of the Spirit, and the gifts, and especially tongues and prophecies were only for the time of the disciples, mainly during the writing of the book of Acts.

BUT they are wrong and the Bible even teaches us that there are different manifestations of the Spirit and I for one declare what I KNOW to be true and maybe they just need to pray to experience these things BEFORE they malign others. SO there is my disclaimer!

EVERYTHING is symbolic and ALL the teachings of the Bible APPLY to us now. God had it written through His Holy Revelation as a guidebook for all the generations that would come after its completion.

NOTHING else is needed and if anyone believes that those teachings are outdated or for certain times then how would He want us to navigate our way now? That is the trouble with that argument.

It DOES apply and the symbolism, once He has taught you to “read” it is where the answers to many of our questions are found. So on that note, let’s get going!

In our verse, she FOUND him, she made a CONSCIOUS effort to seek him, she did not wait for “fate” to allow her a chance meeting. We have to get out of the thinking that what we seek will “just happen” and “if it is meant to be it will” that may be all well and good, but  David PROCLAIMED in Psalm 27:8:

“When thou saidst, SEEK YE MY FACE, MY HEART SAID UNTO THEE, THY FACE, LORD, WILL I SEEK.”

Song of Solomon 3:1-4: “By NIGHT on my bed I SOUGHT HIM WHOM MY SOUL LOVETH, I sought him, but I found him not.

I WILL RISE now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I WILL SEEK HIM WHOM MY SOUL LOVETH; I sought him but I found him not. The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?

It was but a LITTLE that I passed from them, but I FOUND HIM WHOM MY SOUL LOVETH; I HELD HIM, AND WOULD NOT LET HIM GO….”

We are encouraged through theses verses and MANY more to SEEK, so IF we are already saved, WHY would we be told to SEEK?

Because there IS more, for David was to be promoted from shepherd boy to thrice anointed King, whose throne WILL stand forever.

I am sure the disciples would have been saved once they did indeed accept Christ as the Messiah, BUT it was when they heeded His words “FOLLOW ME” that their discipleship was enacted.

And our lady the church, in the above verses from Solomon, had SEARCHED and SEARCHED, and could NOT even sleep because her heart longed and searched for the ONE she knew that her soul must find.

And as those verse point out, finding him was NOT easy, she HAD TO RISE UP and move OUT of her comfort zone.

The “watchmen” evidently thought she was a little far out considering they ‘found” her, leading us to think that they questioned what on earth was she doing. But she told them, asking them Where is he? They were obviously of no help since we are told that shortly after she did find him and would not lose what she had found.

And that is about where Mary of Bethany found herself, she HAD sought and she found him at the dinner table and in her desperation, she did “pass by the watchmen” those that held the dinner that she had not been invited to, she CAME ANYWAY.

And that is sometimes what it takes to get some alabaster breaking, the willingness to not care what anyone else thinks of you or your worship of the Lord, how crazy they think you are or what a fanatic they accuse of being.

The ONLY thing she brought with her was her alabaster flask, alabaster in its purest form is snow white (dig, the symbolism) but it the iron it is exposed to that produces the faded color and “veining” but it remains translucent, and it’s softness it what makes it so delicate and easily carved and with enough water it will dissolve but under the wrong conditions it will become hard as any other rock.

Can you see “US”, our feminine state in the alabaster?

He does create us pure as snow, but enough hardness, hurt, and “iron” of this life will dull that white turning it as burnt amber with all the fine lines and cracks from those things that have almost broken us, forming the veining throughout the piece but it still retains its translucency, still allowing light to pass through, even in its darkened state, and while not a perfect image, what the vessel truly holds can still be somewhat seen through the marred surface.

We ARE the alabaster vessels, and the hardness will soften and vanish completely away once that “vessel” is washed over by  “living” waters.

Her flask held spikenard, still heralded as an anointing oil, but the secret to this is the flowers of the plant is comes from, the flowers are pink and bell-shaped, beautiful and fragrant, again super feminine, just like we like to be, we want to feel our best, feel feminine, and as the plant “wears” it’s pretty pink bells, so do we.

BUT what we see on the surface is NOT always a reflection of what lies underneath and this plants has some serious roots.

How about our roots? What lies beneath our surfaces, what is so deep, so horrid, so hidden, that we can not even bring ourselves to dig it up?

But to get this oil, you have to deal with the roots, and it is funny, if the roots are stored they are prone to bacteria and infection, they also have the ability to shoot off and grow more roots, (troubles) and it to get the oil the roots must be CRUSHED. Destroying the root BUT producing something so beautiful in return.

In our story it was EXPENSIVE, worth around a years wages, so in our spirits what is the worth of our OWN alabaster boxes?

What caused the fading, veining, and cracks? What was the price paid for everything contained in that vessel?

Tears, heartaches, betrayals, and mistakes, coercions, and outright attacks. Was that price so high that, like some of us, that the vessel is all you even have left? If you know there are things to be dealt with, roots that cost you your peace, joy, and happiness, cracks in that alabaster that has left you feeling worthless and unloved, or cheated and betrayed, or wounds of loss that seem to have destroyed any hope for your present, much less hope of a future. SEEK HIM.

Jeremiah 29:13 :”And ye SHALL seek me, and FIND me, when YOU SEARCH FOR ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART.”

Find him, take your vessel and BREAK IT, scripture says: Isaiah 53:5…..”the CHASTISEMENT of OUR PEACE was UPON HIM;…”

He GIVES us HIS peace when we are willing to break and allow everything in us to be poured out and if you are have trouble with things that just won’t seem to go away and fighting the same emotional battles over and over again, give it to Him because He wants to make you new but you have to let Him, and take the vessel of your heart, your soul, to him, your will, your fears, take it ALL,  it has to break, and those roots must be crushed, there is no other way.

True freedom is given at the feet of Jesus, your enemies can not touch you, your past can not haunt you, and those roots, once crushed will never sprout up again!

Εξυπιζω NBJ 2017

by

“Misplaced pearls”

*Authors note* This series originally posted on “Alabaster Breaking”, my sister site, that no longer exists. I found it very difficult to maintain both sites and just transferred those posts to this, my main site. Thank you

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy; I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” And of course that was Jesus speaking in John 10:10

And you may be wondering just what that has to do with pearls… EVERYTHING!

Pearls ARE precious, most of us own a strand, we wear them on important occasions, and days we just want to dress up a little but there is something so secret, so beautiful, so feminine that many of us love the feeling of wearing a strand of  beautiful pearls with our favorite pair of jeans.

WHY? What on earth could be so different about these perfect little orbs that sets them so far apart from other “jewels” that may be considered EVEN more beautiful like diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, or even jade and all stones semi-precious?

Could it because pearls have ALWAYS been associated with PURITY and INNOCENCE?

Forever the choice jewelry of BRIDES everywhere and do you remember reading that I did write that this entire blog is stir up and awaken us to the realization that we are part of a soon to take place wedding?

THE WEDDING OF THE AGES, with the KING OF THE UNIVERSE AS THE GROOM, COMPLETE WITH A TRULY ANGELIC CHOIR, AND THE HOST OF HEAVEN AS HIS WEDDING PARTY! 

Revelation 20:9: “And he said unto me, Write, BLESSED ARE THEY WHICH ARE CALLED UNTO THE MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.”

And we are encouraged throughout the Bible to be prepared, to have on our “wedding garments” as John saw:

“And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, PREPARED as a bride adorned for her husband.” Revelation 21:2

And at this wedding we ALL get to wear our pearls! But sometimes we misplace them, or the “thief” comes and truly steals them, hides them from us, or just rips the strand apart and they plunge to the ground, whirling in  a hundred directions and landing a thousand miles apart and we are left with the task of trying to recover every single pearl and restring the entire necklace.

But you know, we are not that talented because our true pearls were master crafted and ONLY He can put that necklace together again.

One of the ways pearls have been worn over the ages is a symbol of mourning because the little seed pearls look like tear drops and pearls were chosen by brides as a representation of purity, chastity, innocence, beauty, and mostly importantly for here, NEW BEGINNINGS.

Spiritually we are BORN with those beautiful pearls AS a gift from our Father when He created us.

And THOSE pearls ARE our innocence, our purity, and our beauty in Him. But LIFE and the enemy have  a way of sneaking in and either getting us to take off those pearls and lay them aside and sometimes in moments of repeatedly putting them on, only to decide to take them back off, we end up misplacing them.

And sometimes we have taken them off, laid them down on a nightstand and the enemy has stolen them, hid them, and laughed as we beg for them back.. all the while telling us that had we really wanted them we would have never been in that bed anyway and now we don’t deserve them back.

And I think the hardest would be when you did not take them off, the enemy came with destruction and ripped them off your neck and being left absolutely helpless trying to gather them through your tears as they roll across the floor.

Can you see it? Can you see the innocence and the purity that the enemy HAS stolen, killed, and destroyed concerning the sisters and daughters IN the world and those who are SAVED and STILL struggle with surrendering completely to God for fear of what the enemy has LIED to them about?  

Jesus IS the RESTORER, He wants nothing more than to RESTORE every single part of us. We are the ones who have the problem actually LETTING Him do that because we are often so afraid to let Him see what needs shown, EVEN though He already sees it, He already knows it.

You can be saved and still be holding on to something so deep, so painful that whether you know it or not really does IMPACT everything about your life, your happiness, and your joy. And to have true fulfillment in who He created you to be and who He wants you to be on this earth, you have to ask yourself, Where are those pearls?

And if NONE of this applies to you, that is great and just pray for the 99.9% that it does apply to.

Virginity or rather the loss thereof.. which is usually, in our present world the real point that starts so many women down the spiral to places He never intended His daughters to walk because that is something so precious and was only EVER meant to be shared in a holy union and that is why so many women have felt disillusioned, lost, and instead of feeling loved, been left feeling completely empty and this sets them up to repeat this over and over again because so many feel like once that have started this path, the can never go back BUT I promise you can get off that path any time you choose.

Our society has brain washed women into giving themselves completely away simply because the world tells them that is what they are supposed to do.

Satan IS a liar and the father of lies, you will never find “love” in anything the world has to offer and sex is just satan’s completely carnal counter to what God had intended to be beautiful and it will never make you feel anything, when it is all said and done, than worse than you did before it happened.

Virginity is an absolute blessed state. So taking that obvious “loss” off the table. Pearls can be lost and damaged by our relationships to our father’s, fathers are supposed to protect us, nurture us and not everyone has that relationship or if you have had a father who is just emotionally distant, you are losing the pearls of security knowing that someone is looking out for you and that there is someone who will love you unconditionally and dry all your tears.

Maybe you had a great childhood and a wonderful Dad but marriage was the misplacement of your pearls.

If trust is broken when you have given someone your heart, your life, every part of all you are and it is supposed to be forever and either he turns out to be a jerk or worse a cheating batterer, because those two go hand in hand, well that is a recipe for a whole different disaster.

So, if as you have read this, you are feeling tears swell up just a little, I want to challenge you, we all KNOW our hearts, we all KNOW our hurts, wounds, and raging resentments, write them down, in your own private time, write them down, every single thing as far back as you can go that has hurt you, made you question your self-worth, and especially things that have made you feel like you have lost “yourself” and of course it is going to hurt and it will probably hurt like no tomorrow. 

Don’t be surprised if you see things that you never noticed, times where people were manipulating you and you never realized, times that you can see in retrospect that led to bad decisions and self-destructive behavior later on.

If you worry someone will find your innermost secrets, burn it or shred it in  a million pieces and flush it when you are through.

But it is necessary because it frees you and helps you recognize things for what they really are.

Wounds, memories, and mistakes that DO NOT define who you are, and we have to acknowledge these areas in order to TRULY give it all to Christ.

He is a perfect gentleman and He wants to help you and make all things new and HE DOES already KNOW every single detail of your life BUT He will not force His way into your life, but wants you to come to Him, KNOWING that He does NOT judge you and will NOT be asking WHY on earth did you do that?

Nor will He ask, WHAT were you thinking? He is nothing like anything most have been taught and I promise once you start “searching” for those pearls and being honest about “where” your life, in your past they had been misplaced or “where” they were stolen or THOUGHT destroyed by an event that you HAD NO CONTROL over.

HE CAN MAKE IT ALL NEW, I can not stress that enough, And I promise once that “alabaster” starts to crack, you will know, you will probably feel like your cracking too, but we HAVE to break to be made new and HE WILL NEVER LET YOU BREAK BEYOND REPAIR, so do not be afraid, LET HIM hold you and wipe away every tear and place upon your neck an even more precious strand, whose cost is beyond measure, and this new strand will never be misplaced again.

Join me next time and we’ll check out some alabaster!

Εξυπνιζω NBJ 2017

Love this song! And this IS what you need to know!

by

Relinquishing Regret

“Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; according to thy mercy remember me for thy goodness’ sake O Lord. Good and upright IS the Lord: therefore he will teach sinners in the way. The meek (humble) will he guide in judgment(justice): and the meek he will teach his way.

ALL the paths of the Lord are MERCY and TRUTH unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. For thy name’s sake, O, Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.” Psalm 25: 7-11

Nothing can eat away our life, our health, and our soul quite like guilt. The most self destructive of all human emotions and the biggest of all burdens that are to be brought and LEFT AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS. 

It is often the binding tie that satan uses to hold his prisoners captive, convincing them in themselves that they DO NOT deserve to be free from the chains of actions taken yesterday whose consequences are forever now written.

He uses it on Christians, who even though they have come to the cross, they have failed to lay down that burden and continue to beat and badger themselves over and over again, not accepting the truth of forgiveness and allowing that guilt and regret to taint and rob the joy and peace that Jesus provided at the cross.

When we are constantly emotionally punishing ourselves over and over, the enemy has little to fear because we are doing his job for him. Why does he need to accuse the brethren when the brethren accuse themselves?

Regret WIIL make you sick, it WILL make you miserable, and it can very well lead you to hell, IF you allow guilt and regret to prevent you from accepting God’s salvation.

We can think we are not worth but Jesus thought we were VERY MUCH WORTH IT and He gave His life for ALL our sins. ALL of our mistakes, shortcomings, and failures and to hold the guilt rather than accepting forgiveness is making our guilt our god.

Regret is just guilt’s enabler, a life spent pondering things we could have and should have done is again a life, precious, given of God, completed wasted in endless analytical thoughts of how things could have been different.

Guilt and regret have no place in your life, they are past tense only and to bring them with you in the present is only sabotaging your future and the well-being and futures of all you interact with and have influence with.

As we know I am BIG on preaching influence because WE all have influence, even if you live alone, you have the POWER to impact others, someway, somehow, or maybe due to your availability, there is a ministry of service and outreach with “your name written all over it”, just waiting in the background, until you are ready to shed guilt and regret, send them packing, and spread your spiritual wings and let God lead you where HE ALREADY PREDESTINED FOR YOU TO GO!

But if your holding guilt and regret, He is NOT going to just reach down and jerk them out of your hands, YOU HAVE TO BE WILLING TO LET THEM GO! Then He can give you all the good things of His mercy and His Truth that HE WANTS TO GIVE YOU.

The verses above, for me is the absolute guide to repentance, quoted them many, many times myself and when I was first saved it was reading these verses over and over through floods and rivers of tears.

We have ALL messed up, we have ALL sinned, we have ALL been best friends with guilt and regret, but Jesus is faithful and HE wants us to let them go and TRUST in Him and forget all those things and press on, IN HIM.

And the ONLY way to true freedom IS found in Him and His blood and the washing by that blood, we can’t drink them away, can’t snort them away, and your sure not going to wish them away, all the methods people use in attempt to dull their inner pain always ends the same, once your down and the crash comes your only more messed up and deeper and deeper in that sinking pit and NOTHING is going away, more regret is just being added.

Continuing in Psalm 25:12-22: ” What man (human) is he that feareth the Lord? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose. HIS SOUL SHALL DWELL AT EASE (in goodness) and his seed (descendants) shall inherit the earth.

The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew (cause them to know) his covenant. Mine (my) eyes are ever toward the Lord; FOR HE SHALL PLUCK MY FEET OUT OF THE NET. Turn thee unto me, (please come to me) have mercy upon me; for I am desolate (lonely) and afflicted.

THE TROUBLES OF MY HEART ARE ENLARGED (burdened with worry, guilt, regret) ;O BRING THOU ME OUT OF MY DISTRESSES. LOOK UPON MINE AFFLICATION AND MY PAIN; AND FORGIVE MY SINS. Consider mine enemies (negative emotions and even ourselves ARE enemies); for they hate me with a cruel hatred.

O keep my soul, and DELIVER ME: let me not be ashamed; for I put my TRUST IN THEE. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I WAIT ON THEE (wait IN FAITH on thee). Redeem Israel, O, God, out of ALL his troubles.”

Jesus is more than willing to heal us in these places, if we only ask. So many are trapped in prisons of heartache, regret, and remorse but PLEASE, PLEASE, as a minister of HIS GRACE, I am pleading with you, DON’T STAY THERE.

We ALL have those spans of time we dearly wish would could go back and change.. but we can’t. What we CAN change is how those times can be used to propel you into your destiny and in to the kingdom where you can maybe one day use those lessons learned to help another NOT make the same choices.

As my very wise sister always says, it really is like burying something dead and going back and digging up rotten old bones.Take them to the cross and leave them there and never think about them again.

God gives us beauty for ashes, to produce ashes something has had to burn. Don’t wait another moment, You can talk to God anywhere,  you don’t have to be in a church house, HE WILL MEET YOU WHEREVER YOU ARE.

STOP being your own enemy and unwittingly sabotaging your own life, lay guilt and regret, and all that hurts you today, on HIS altar and let it all be burned away. Let a NEW day unfold because you will never EVER know freedom until you are FREE in Him. Blessing and Peace to you in Jesus’ name.

Φλογίζω Σαλπιζω NBJ 2017     Original Post 02/27/2017 Revisited 02/14/2021 Praying this will be a blessing to someone today! Also my beautiful sister who is referenced above as since went home to be with Jesus, two years now on the 16th, but her love,words, and wisdom live on, so today, please don’t let anything, anything keep you away from funding peace in Jesus, He is there, and He is only a heartbeat away.

 

 

by

AWAKENING / THE FORGOTTEN CHILD

 

“Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?

I raised thee up(awakened) under the apple tree:…”  Song of Solomon 7:5

The wilderness the daughters of God have been very acquainted with since the dawn of time.
Since the fall of man, the enemy has ensured that we would be considered no more than property and every day countless of us are raped, abused, forced into prostitution and in many countries we are still property at the complete mercy of often unmerciful husbands.

While in other corners of the world, unable to carry lineage names daughters are aborted and others sold into slavery.
Christianity of old. Tainted by MEN also seemed to teach that women are inferior but the truth is far from that.
My biggest struggle in coming to Christ was this very topic, I was like, Why are women always the bad ones? Misguided teaching of confused or intentionally biased doctrine has kept many away and who could blame them?
Many modern women who have been left to support their children completely alone, who have struggled to pay their bills, put food on their tables, educate themselves and their children ,just barely surviving through the world.

And if they happen into the wrong church they will hear that they are of a lesser value to God than their male counterparts. To “fit in” they will need to change everything about themselves and sit down and above all shut up.
Even after God had enlightened me to the truth and helped me understand his word, I still had trouble wrapping my head around a few things.
I did most of intense studying before my child was school aged, after everyone was asleep and my house cleaned, I would stay up and read until I could not function any longer.

One night I happened upon Judges 19 which in my opinion contains the most disturbing and gruesome story in the entire Bible.
It mirrors the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, ironically found in Genesis 19, when Lot had offered his virgin daughters to the deviant, demon possessed pagans, who were demanding he turn over his male visitors to them, “that they may know them” translated, so they could gang rape them.  

The Bible clear to point out that Lot offered these girls with a “do whatever you want to them” agreement to try to get them to take them instead of the male visitors.

To break Judges 19 down, a Levite had a concubine, it says she “played the harlot”.
I’m not sure how that worked since she was “kept” for that purpose, double standards of the day, which still equate in our culture as the difference between a guy being a “player” and a woman being a “slut”.

Another problem Jesus addressed when he came to earth, he wants two people married, period.
Enlightening them to their double standards when they wanted judgment against the adulterous woman, of course it takes two, but they seemed to have forgotten to bring her partner in this sin before the Lord, His answer to them translating to this, if they themselves had no sin, go ahead hit her.

Standing in front of a Holy God they couldn’t do it.

But at the time of Judges, men could have as many women as they wanted but it was never God’s plan.
To get on with the story, she went back to her father’s house, so he comes after her to talk her into coming back, finally she agreed, and after being detained several days they went on their way.

He refused to stay anywhere other than lands belonging to the tribes of Israel and insisted on traveling to a city of the tribe of Benjamin, they had nowhere to stay, so an old man invited them to stay with him, pleading that they not stay outside, soon just as with Sodom, there were men at his door demanding he turn over this man to them that they “may know him”.

Picture perfect to Sodom, only lacking the presence of the angels that saved Lot’s daughters. So the old guy offers his daughter and the concubine, again with the agreement to whatever they wanted to them, just do not touch the man.

They refused, they still wanted the man, so the guy just takes the concubine and throws her out to them and they repeatedly gang rape her until the morning and then they let her go.

She makes it to the door of the house where she collapses, she just lies there helplessly until he gets up, opens the door and finds her and he actually tells her quite simply, to get up they have to get going, needless to say she is dead.
He dismembers her body into twelve parts and sends a part to each of the tribes and war is waged.
It wasn’t that they raped her or that she was dead that bothered him, it was because they destroyed his property.

I read this and I was alone with my shock and absolute horror and knowing the Lord, I just asked “Why, Why are we of so little value?”
These “men” would not even try to fend off these monsters, not even try to muster up an ounce of anything remotely resembling courage to fight for themselves.

Forget chivalry, or protection, an ounce of some sort of compassion, but to just offer these women as less than nothing and to do it to save themselves. I just could not understand it.

I do understand that at the time the thought of this being done to men was so unthinkable that they were desperate to prevent it. But they could have tried to prevent it for happening to any of them.

The God I know would never sanction this stuff or ever condone it and I was in tears, and it just hit me to keep reading, the bottom line is this, at the very end of Judges, “In those days there was no king in Israel: Every man did what was right in his own eyes.”

This was never God!

He never put these things in men’s hearts and for years it was falsely taught and still is in many places.

Men still do what is right in their own eyes and only God can make them see the truth.
But it is time for the awakening of his daughters.

No matter what false beliefs that women have been brainwashed by, we have to let them know that this is not what Jesus is about.
He does not hate women and did not create us to be objects of amusement to fulfill the twisted lusts of men nor to be their gender indentured servants.

If we are ever to see those that are oppressed be saved and free, they have to know the truth about him and who he is and most of all who they are in him.

A forgotten child, much like David, when no one would even waste their time to call him to be presented before Samuel the Prophet, because in their eyes why would a prophet possibly want to speak with someone so unimportant and simple?

A forgotten child from the greatest of tribes, who just happened to be a woman, a sister to the twelve tribes of Israel, a forgotten child that no one bothers to mention because she was not as important as her brothers, or so they thought.

Dinah, the seventh child Leah bore to Jacob, a woman who also a thing or two about pain and substandard treatment, who had been raped and used as a bargaining chip which led to a mass slaughter.

Her bloodline STILL offering an inheritance. because she was one of the tribe.

The most prophetic beauty with Dinah is the meaning of her name, “JUDGEMENT.”

It is awakening time for the sisters, the beautiful, forgotten army who have a straight shot to the heart of the Father.

You are so strong, so powerful, and yet, you do not even know WHO YOU ARE in HIM, and so unaware of your predestined place in this end time end game.

You are the spiritual virgins and maidens forever following to proclaim the majesty, beauty, and holiness of the Kings of Kings.

It is the love and proclamations that Hannah, and Mary, and never forget Mary Magdalene, He came to her first because she needed him the most.

Take your place in the kingdom, it is not going to be accomplished with half an army.
The adoration and praises from hearts that have known sorrows and pain that men can never begin to understand.

A relationship to God who will bring justice for others on behalf of the cries of the souls of his daughters.
Unlike the time of Judges, unlike the women who are your sisters the world over, who are oppressed and in bondage. 

You have access to a King, the King, and The King over heaven, and earth, and the entire universe, He will plead their cause if you bring them before his throne in that secret prayer closet.
He will bring justice for those your tears flood the altar for, when you allow your soul to be awakened under that tree, awakened by a love so strong, so powerful, so consuming that you wear that love as a covering for the whole world to see.

“I AM the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among the thorns so is my love among the daughters. as the apple tree among the trees of wood so it my beloved among the sons.

I sat down under his shadow with great delight his fruit was sweet to my taste.  He brought me into the banqueting house and his banner of me was LOVE”  Song of Solomon 2:1-4

Translated: KNOW HIM for who HE IS, allow his love to bloom in you, in spite of the valleys and thorns, breathe in his sweetness and lift you up out of those ashes and hide in the secret place of the Most High, under the shadow of his wings, taste the goodness of his salvation and let him bring you into his house of feasting and the love of Jehovah Nissi is his war flag over his daughters and the love is the secret to it all.

Φλογίζω / 02/05/2015. All rights reserved. Rev. Nina BrownJohnson 2015

For later posts in the realm of all things feminine, check these out:

Resurgence of Ruth

 “Misplaced pearls”

“Something needs to break”

“Grinding the ax” 1 “acknowledgement”

“Grinding the ax” 2… “Real Love?”

“Grinding the ax” #3 “Anger Danger”

“Grinding the ax” #4 “STRANGLE HOLD”

REVISTED:08/01/2019 Because sometimes we just need to be reminded of who Jesus REALLY is and who he has called us to be in him.