Category: Discipleship

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Abide: Staying Connected to GOD in Difficult Seasons

Hi Faith Travelers!

Happy Good Friday & Holy Week!

At this point, I think I can still say Happy New Year, given you haven’t heard from me since December 2024 :-)…

It has taken me quite some time to write this particular post since the beginning of January because, honestly speaking, I have not been exempt from trials in this season. In fact, many I know have also been going through their own set of trials, almost daily, since the start of the new year. But I will say this…God’s word never said we would have a life absent of trials, it did however say that He(God) would be with us through them (See Psalms 23:4).

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

Psalms 23:4

Many think when they surrender their life to God and receive the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, that means life miraculously becomes problem free. (* Hits buzzer*… “Wrong!”) Well, your life does get better because you receive eternal life. However, satan, as the little “g” god of this world, will still attempt to attack (See John 10:10) believers to discourage, scare or slow them down from walking in the fullness of who God called them to be and what He has called them to do to advance the Kingdom of God. This is why it is said that this world we live in is a battlefield not a playground. We have to make a daily decision to stand for and on God’s word that gives us the instructions on how to fight back against the attacks of the enemy(satan).

Speaking of trials, let’s talk about 2025. I am sure this has been a peculiar year, so far, for most but God remains faithful through it all no matter what it looks like around us. As we stepped into this new season and era at the beginning of 2025, there is one word that the Lord God keeps reminding me that we all need to take heed to. That word is…ABIDE.

Abide means to remain, continue, obey or dwell. With that said, in 2025 and beyond, we need to remain in the Lord, keeping our connection to Him while continuing to trust and draw closer to the true and living God in every situation like never before. We need to walk in obedience, following the Lord’s instructions quickly and intentionally. And we need to dwell with the Lord just as His word says in Psalms 91:1.

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High

Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Psalms 91:1

Why abide, you ask? Because apart from the Lord, we can do nothing. No matter how much you think you know, no matter the number of degrees you possess, how clever or talented you are or even how powerful you think you are on this earth. Apart from Jesus Christ, you can do nothing (See John 15:5). This is why it is important to stay connected and abide in the Lord. Parably speaking, if He is the vine and we are the branches and we are disconnected from Him, that means we are disconnected from the life source; the source of life filled with love, truth, purpose, faith, trust and abundance.

So how do we Abide?…

I am going to share 3 key ways to abide in the Lord…

  1. Learn God’s Ways & Character through Prayer and time in His Word
    • Know that God loves you ( 1 John 4:12-16) and is waiting to hear from you, no matter the circumstance or baggage you are coming with in the moment
      • He leaves the 99 to go after the 1 (If you are that one, He’s waiting for you with open arms- Matthew 18:10-14)
    • Set intentional Daily Prayer time
      • Prayer is just communication with God as if you are talking to a friend or a loving Father. (Matthew 6:5-15)
      • This can be as long as you want or as short as time allows; as many times a day as you like
        • Quote: “I don’t ever pray any longer than twenty minutes, but I never go twenty minutes without praying. ” -Smiths Wigglesworth
        • Your prayer life is not measured in minutes. Prayer is a lifestyle.
      • Understand and trust that the Lord hears your prayers wherever you are, even if you are in the car on the way to work (1 John 5:14-15)
    • Read & Study God’s Word
      • Pray for understanding and God given revelation before reading and studying the word of God so that your interpretation is true & sound
      • If you are new to studying the word of God, start with the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John)
  2. Grow your relationship with the Lord (See Previous Blog on Intimacy [Closeness] with God )
    • Spend time in God’s presence
      • Uninterrupted time with the Father (God)
      • This can include prayer, praise and worship or just quiet time listening to the Lord.
    • Have 2-way communication with the Lord
      • Listen twice as long as you pray
      • Write down what you believe the Lord is saying so you can refer back to it to strengthen your trust in hearing God clearly
    • Learn how God speaks to you
      • Through His Word, through dreams, visions, inward knowing, a feeling(“Something told me…”)
      • God is always speaking we just have to listen (John 14:26)
  3. Surrender to living your life for the Lord

When we abide in the Lord, He abides in us; leading, guiding, protecting, and ordering our steps to and through the purpose and plan He has for our lives. When we submit to abiding in the Lord, it doesn’t matter what is going on in the world or how bad things get because we have the God who created the universe on our side. Rest in knowing that.

Until the next faith lesson…

To be a part of the movement, share your own faith story Here!

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Surely, I Thought…: Resisting Prideful Expectation from GOD

HI Faith Travelers!

It’s the last Faith Friday of the year and I pray you all are having a great wrap up to 2024 and are in expectation of the fullness of all that God has for you in 2025.

Today we are going to talk about resisting pride when it comes to your expectations from GOD. See, there is a difference between having faith and being in pride when it comes to what you are expecting from the Lord. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen (See Hebrews 11:1). Faith also means to have strong belief or complete trust or confidence in GOD. Pride, on the other hand, can be defined as the quality of having an excessively high opinion of oneself or one’s importance; presumption; arrogance; conceitedness; egotism; self-regard; self-glorification or haughtiness.

There are several scriptures in the Bible that talk about the negative connotation and impact of pride:

“Pride goes before destruction…” (See Proverbs 16:18);

“When pride comes, then comes shame…” (See Proverbs 11:2)

“By pride comes nothing but strife…”(See Proverbs 13:10)

“A man’s pride will bring him low…” (See Proverbs 29:23)

“Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord…” (See Proverbs 16:5)

The Bible also states, that “God resists [to oppose, strive against or withstand] the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” (See James 4:6)

The world will make every attempt to convince you that having pride is a good thing but GOD’s word shows us in black and white just how destructive “Pride” can be.

Let’s take a look at the story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5:1-19 to show you how pride can potentially hinder GOD’s blessing. Naaman was a mighty Syrian army commander who’d brought the king of Syria much victory yet he was suffering from leprosy. His wife’s maid servant told her that one of GOD’s prophets in Samaria could heal Naaman. Naaman told this to the king of Syria and the king wrote a letter to the king of Israel to introduce Naaman and his purposes of coming to their land to be healed. GOD’s prophet, Elisha, heard about the king of Israel’s response and told him to send Naaman to him so that he would know there is a true prophet of GOD in Israel. Naaman headed to Elisha’s house with his horses and chariot and stood at Elisha’s door. Elisha sent a messenger to tell Naaman to “go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan river. Then your skin will be restored and you will be healed of your leprosy.” But Naaman, in pride, became furious and went away stating that surely he thought the prophet would come out to meet him, wave his hands and heal the leprosy. He described other rivers in Israel being better than the Jordan river and didn’t understand why he shouldn’t wash in those rivers instead. Naaman turned away in rage and pride and would have missed his blessing if it had not been for his servants reasoning with him about the instructions from Elisha. His servants stated, “if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, “Wash and be clean[cured]!” So Naaman went to the Jordan River, dipped seven times and just like the prophet of GOD said, He was completely cured from leprosy. Naaman went back to the prophet of GOD and proclaimed that now he knows there is no god except The true and living GOD (then called the God of Israel).

How many times have you missed out or nearly missed out on GOD’s blessings because the way GOD wanted to do things didn’t meet your prideful expectation? You may have been looking for the extravagant gesture or the instant result and the Lord is telling you it’s in the process and MY still small voice. (See Reference I Kings 19:11-12)

I can recall many occasions where I wanted the Lord to do something a specific way but GOD showed me that His ways are higher than my ways and His thoughts are higher than my thoughts (See Isaiah 55:8-9). There was a specific instance where I wanted GOD to heal me miraculously like He’d done so many times before. I soon found out that had I not gone the medical surgery route like GOD was leading me to, I would’ve not only missed my healing but I would have missed the opportunity to minister to so many women who were connected to my obedience to share my story. Don’t worry, I plan to share that story soon in the coming year.

There was another instance years ago, where I was expecting GOD to pay off my student loans miraculously, much like I had seen happen in the past with people I know. Well that’s not how GOD wanted to do it with me and I found that out very quickly after receiving a late fee from not making a payment that GOD didn’t tell me not to make. We all make zealous mistakes sometimes but this is why it’s important to obey GOD’s instructions and not your prideful expectations. That minor disappointment was my own fault and had nothing to do with God because He didn’t instruct me to do that. Through all of this, GOD was trying to show me how to steward my finances well and proper money management so that I would know for future purposes. Well those private student loans were paid in full in 2018 and I have been able to remain debt free from student loans even after getting a masters degree and bible college diploma because I stuck with the process of the bigger lesson that GOD wanted me to learn through all of this.

Let’s finish up the story of Naaman, Elisha and Elisha’s servant in II Kings 5:20-27, to understand what can happen when you actually give in to prideful expectations.

After Naaman spoke to Elisha sharing that he now knows the only god is the GOD of Israel, Naaman offered Elisha a gift from his servant. This gift included silver, gold and clothing. Elisha responded, “as surely as the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not accept any gifts.” Even though Naaman urged him to take the gift, Elisha refused. But Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, said to himself that his master, Elisha, should not have let Naaman leave without accepting any of his gifts. In pride, Gehazi stated, “as surely as the Lord lives, I will chase after Naaman and get something from him.” Gehazi caught up with Naaman, lied about Elisha sending him to get 2 sets of clothing and 75 pounds of silver for two visiting prophets and was offered twice as much silver from Naaman along with 2 sets of clothing. When Gehazi got back to the house, he hid the gifts. Elisha asked Gehazi where he had been and he lied again, stating he hadn’t been anywhere. Elisha asked Gehazi if he realized that his spirit was there when he met with Naaman, basically letting Gehazi know that the spiritual gift that GOD had given Elisha allowed him to spiritually see everything that happened while he wasn’t physically there. Elisha asked “Is this a time to receive money and clothing, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and cattle, and male and female servants?” Elisha proceeded to tell Gehazi, because you have done this, you and your descendants will suffer from Naaman’s leprosy forever. When Gehazi left the room, he was covered with leprosy; his skin was white as snow.

Remember those scriptures on pride. This was a clear example of how Gehazi’s prideful expectation and greed that he should get gifts from Naaman, put him right on the path to destruction. While my student loan late fee is nothing compared to Gehazi and his descendants being stricken with leprosy forever, I could have dealt with a lot worse and still been in debt had I not humbled myself and listen to the instructions GOD was actually giving me on money management versus my prideful expectation of Him just making everything go away in the blink of an eye. Don’t get me wrong, our GOD is the GOD who can do any and all things but if HE did it instantly or the same way every time then what lesson are you really learning. Are you only seeking HIS hand and what HE can do for you? Or are you seeking HIS Face and learning HIS ways intimately so that He can lead and guide you to and through the purpose HE has for your life. So resist prideful expectation from God and humble yourselves according to the Lord, knowing that He may exalt you at the appropriate time (See I Peter 5:6 AMP). The choice is yours.

Until the next faith lesson…

To be a part of the movement, share your own faith story Here!

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Planting and Watering for God’s Increase

HI Faith Travelers!

I can recall the time when I would stress myself over wondering if I did what God asked me to do correctly. For instance, when God would lead me to pray for someone, encourage them, share my story or even buy them food, I would sometimes second guess if I did enough. I would think to myself, “Oh no I should have invited them to church, I should have given them my number so I can continue to talk and pray with them or I should have led them through the salvation prayer. I should’ve done more!” I can recall the internal battle I had after giving the loaf of bread to a family God led me to, as written in my blog post on Following the Voice of God. Even then God told me I could have gone to any house and He would have made it well. It was more about my obedience than anything so that He could continue to direct me in similar ways and use me as a vessel for His glory. Well I didn’t understand it then, but when God directs us to minister to someone whether through prayer, encouragement, providing a meal, etc., we don’t have to make sure we do everything in that one moment to disciple them especially if God has given specific instructions on how to minister to that individual. Consider seeing ministering as seed sowing/planting. For example, my encounter with the family I was led to give the loaf of bread to was a seed planted. I didn’t need to worry about not having done anything else during that exchange except what God instructed me to do which was just to provide the bread. That was the seed planted. I don’t know this personally but I trust that God sent someone else to water the seed that I initially planted and from there, God will give the increase and make it grow. This example is found in I Corinthians 3:5-7.

5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

I Corinthians 3:5-7

This scripture shows us that in this biblical scenario, Paul planted, Apollos watered and God gave the increase. So we never have to worry about trying to be a mini Jesus to someone or to a situation because God has already ordered the steps as He draws all men to Him (See John 12:32). Nothing is impossible for God, He can orchestrate a divine encounter that sets a person on the path of salvation and righteousness before they even realize. Just think back in your own lives. The people you ran into who gave you that encouragement in the exact moment you needed it. That person who just so happened to stop for you while you were stranded on the side of the road with a flat tire and before you know it, you two end up attending the same church and growing in God because of a seed they planted and someone else watered.

I can recall a friend from college and “my before living for Christ days” who used to throw these grand parties where I would bring my group of friends to hang out and enjoy. Well as I started truly walking in the things of God our connection phased out. Years later, he contacted me and told me he was struggling with faith and it was causing an issue in his relationship. He said he would watch my Facebook posts and figured I was someone he could talk to about this. God led me to share my testimony with him, sharing the faithfulness of God in my lowest moments of battling an unknown illness. I shared my story, sent a scripture, a local church option and a sermon a few days later and that was the extent of the conversation. He thanked me and told me he would continue to read and study what I shared. Fast forward 5 years to this year, he reached out for a professional contact he and his wife were looking for. I shared my contacts and he proceeded to tell me that I had been an extreme blessing in his life more than I knew. He mentioned how I played a part in getting him over the hurdle when he struggled with faith. He even shared that hearing my testimony gave him the mustard seed of faith that has grown so much that God has him and his wife on a journey doing things they could never have imagined. I recall reading the text and tearing up while thanking God for the reminder of why I continue to live my life for Him.

While I planted seeds into my friend, at some point in those 5 years the seed was watered and God gave the increase and is still increasing him and his family. Well, I also want to add that not only did I plant a seed for my friend but he watered a seed that God planted in me about this very blog of sharing faith to spread faith. Him sharing the impact of me sharing my testimony only gave me the full impacting vision of what God is trying to do through Faith Travels. My prayer is that each blog post and testimony shared is a seed sown on good ground in your hearts, that continues to be watered and cultivated for God to increase. Consider sharing your faith to spread faith, planting and watering seeds one testimony at a time.

To be a part of the movement, share your own faith story Here!

Until the next faith story…