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Faith Jesus Obedience Uncategorized

Obedience: The Faith-Filled Yes

HI Faith Travelers!

Today I want to provide some encouragement to those who have a desire to walk out God’s will for their lives. Those who have been in a faith fight with their flesh between doing what God said and walking away from it all because doing that would be much easier. Well it may be easier to walk away for you, but think about the people who don’t even get a chance to choose Jesus because they never ran into you doing the very thing that God asked you to do, with them in mind. Think about the countless lives assigned to you that are waiting on that one act of obedience that can change their lives for the better, forever. Just think about it…

“Obedience is the Fruit of Faith”

Quote by Christina Rossetti

As Believers, we all make up one Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-27). Meaning we all have our role in the Kingdom of God. Those roles won’t always look the same nor will they be of the same magnitude, require the same level of commitment, or include a platform or stage, dependent on the assignment and calling. One thing that is the same is the obedience that we must walk in to put ourselves aside and yield to a greater purpose bigger than ourselves. That purpose to go into all the world and share the Good News of Jesus Christ until all have heard (Matthew 24:14). 

The reality of the call is that life gets in the way, distractions happen, and the devil doesn’t lay down without a fight even though we know how this story ends. This is why obedience to God’s call is so important. If we knew the lives that were attached to our “Yes” we wouldn’t drag our feet when it comes to staying the course. We wouldn’t allow the naysayers to paralyze us into not moving forward. We wouldn’t ignore doing the very thing that someone did for us to hear and know the truth. So for those running from God and their purpose, turn around and run back towards Him because walking with Him is the best place to be. To those running their God given race (Hebrews 12:1) and those who are just beginning, I have a message for you: 

To the Intercessors and prayer warriors, keep getting up in the wee hours of the night to pray for the nations because your faith and prayers are moving God’s hand. 

To the Evangelist, keep ministering to the loss, performing miracles in Jesus name and sharing the Good News to all who have ears to hear. 

To the Prophet, keep warning the people of God and calling out that which is not of God, even when the world tells you otherwise.

To the Teacher, keep breaking down the Word to those who are hungry for understanding God’s word. 

To the Pastors, continue to nurture and shepard your God given flock, raising them up to be disciples. 

To the Apostle, keep planting and establishing churches where God leads.

To the Missionary, keep going to the nations to share the Good News.

To the Street preacher, keep sharing the truth on every street corner God leads you to. 

To the family with the servants’ heart, keep feeding and clothing the poor and homeless. 

To the Content creator, keep creating on all platforms for God’s glory.

To the Writer, keep writing blogs and books for the Kingdom.

To the Investor, keep funding the God projects and businesses.

To the Inventor, keep taking those God ideas and making them an innovative reality.

To the Person who loves people, keep serving, encouraging and loving on others, even when it’s not reciprocated.

To the Person texting devotionals everyday, keep doing what you are doing, even when you don’t get a response, because you are planting seeds that God can water and grow.

To the Person working on their 9 to 5, keep working in excellence, so when they ask you how you do it, you can credit the True and Living God.

To the Person who thinks the thing that God is leading them to do is insignificant, remain faithful and don’t despise small beginnings (Luke 16:10).

And To the Person who doesn’t know their purpose yet; keep seeking God until the appointed time, when He points you in a direction.

See we all have our part to play in the Body of Christ, much like my part of sharing this blog with you today, but it’s up to us whether we choose to fulfill it or not. God won’t force it on us, but when we choose to give Him our faith-filled “Yes”, He will make sure that He finishes what He started in and through us.

“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”

Philippians 1:6 NLT

Until next time, Faith Travelers…

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Faith Jesus Obedience Prayer Protection Testimony Uncategorized

Obedience Is Better Than Sacrifice: Prevention Through Prayer Pt.2

Happy Faith Friday Faith Travelers!

Last week I shared a message on the power of prayer and how through prayer we can prevent Satan’s evil plans to steal, kill and destroy in our lives ( John 10:10).

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

John 10:10 NKJV

It was through the obedience of following the leading of the Holy Spirit ( John 14:26) that prompted me to pray in the middle of the night, unaware that my prayers were moving on behalf of my family,  saving my mom and grandmother from being hurt or killed in a house fire.

If it’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). He doesn’t warn one person and not warn others to pray and intercede to prevent evil situations. It doesn’t even have to be people or events connected to you for you to receive a prompt from the Lord to pray or intercede. The only requirement is to Listen. The more you spend time in God’s Word and in His presence the easier it is to know His voice when He is speaking ( John 10: 2-5, 27). If this topic is intriguing to you, don’t worry, we will discuss intercession and hearing the voice of God more in depth at a later date.

God can use anyone to pray on your behalf. Based on the story I’m about to share with you today, He used my mom. Little did my mom know that when she had the strong unction to start praying over her two children every day for two weeks, she was dispatching God’s army of angels to stop an attack on her own daughter.

In August 2004, I went about my normal daily routine. I left my grandmother’s house at 4am to pick up my mom and take her to work. I left her job a little after 5am with my younger brother in the car and went back to our grandmother’s house to nap and get ready for classes. I went to campus around 9am and stayed there until it was time to pick up my mom. I picked up my mom after 2:30pm and by 4pm I was headed to work at Best Buy, one of my many jobs. This day seemed like any other day as I got off around 10:45pm but on this particular day, I was unaware that I was being watched and followed. As I was driving home, I was on the phone with a friend with one wired earbud in my ear. I pulled up to my grandmother’s house a little after 11pm. a white Intrepid turned on our quite street around the same time and parked two houses down. As I whispered to myself while still on the phone, “I thought those people moved out of that house”, a guy with a white shirt, jean shorts and a dark colored ball cap on comes running out of that white car and up to my parked car placing his gun at my driver window while trying to open the locked door. I immediately went into what I now know was shock. I put both hands up and start saying ” OK OK OK OK OK” because that’s all I could get out of my mouth. My friend on the phone starts saying, “why do you keep saying OK whats wrong with you?”. The guy continued scrunching his face and mumbling something while tapping the gun on the window. My first response was to grab my purse and give it to him. I didn’t care…He could have it at this point!! I unlocked the door and as soon as I did that, the guy did a double take to his right as if he sees something or someone. Meanwhile, there is absolutely no one on my street. He taps the gun on the window again and does another double take that prompts him to run back to his car. In shock, with a full fight or flight response, I pulled out of the driveway and drove behind him laying on my horn trying to wake up the neighborhood. My friend in my ear yells, “what’s going on?!” I screamed, ” I just got held at gun point!” and then I hung up to call the police. I turned off another street after several seconds of my “not thinking clearly” car chase to go back to my house and wait for the police that pulled up shortly afterwards. They asked questions about what happened and I reenacted everything play by play. One of the officers threw me for a loop when they asked, “Are you sure he wanted your purse?”. Not thinking through the question, I replied ” Yes that’s what he wanted and I was about to open the door to give it to him”. Then I said, in my naive 20 year old thinking, “what else would he want?” The two officers looked at each other and said we may be dealing with a predator. They gave me their card and told me to keep a look out and be aware of my surroundings because the suspect may have been watching me for a period of 2 weeks.

I called my mom after the police left to tell her what happened, and her response was “What! Thank you Jesus! God had me praying for the past 2 weeks. I knew it was about my kids but I didn’t know which one so I covered you both in prayer.” Remember how long the police said the suspect might have been watching me…2 weeks! When I told my mom how the guy ran off, she said, “That’s because he probably saw your angels there ready to protect you.”

A few days later an unfortunate article in the newspaper came out stating a Savannah woman had been raped. The description of the guy and his car were the same and that let me know that the guy for certain didn’t want my purse. It was even said that the suspect was suspected to have an incurable STD at the time of his crimes. This guy did a lot of physical and mental damage to a number of women in Georgia and South Carolina while at large, but was fortunately arrested in 2005 and sentenced the following year.

While I am grateful for God’s protection from what could’ve been an even more traumatic series of events. I continue to pray for the healing of those women affected by his actions.

The next time you get a feeling or prompting to pray for someone or about something…Just do it. You never know what lives you can be saving because of it.

I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.

1 Timothy 2:1 NLT

Until the next Faith testimony…

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Faith Miracle Miracle Prayer Testimony Uncategorized

Obedience Is Better Than Sacrifice: Prevention Through Prayer Pt.1

Hi Faith Travelers!

Happy Faith Friday! 

So let’s to talk about obedience and the power of prayer. If it’s one thing that I’ve learned over the years of truly serving God with my life, it’s that prayer is our greatest weapon. Prayer fights the seen and unseen battles. It prevents what seems unpreventable, hinders the unpredictable and binds up the hands of the devil(the real enemy). The moment you think prayer doesn’t work is the moment you put down your greatest weapon. Our prayers can accomplish more in a situation than us physically being in the midst of that situation. How do I know this you may ask…well I’ve lived it on more than one occasion but today I’ll share one story with you. 

In 2018, the house I grew up in, the home my late grandfather renovated with his own hands, and the home my grandmother and family had lived in since the 70s went up in flames. The fire started in my old room where my mom had been staying to help look out for my grandmother after recent medical issues. Around 3am that same morning I felt the strong unction to pray. I didn’t know why or for what I was praying for, but I was praying, trusting God to handle whatever He needed through me praying in tongues, a gift available to everyone who receives (Read about Praying in tongues in 1 Corinthians 14:2 and Acts 2:4,2:38). As I prayed I could feel things shifting but little did I know the shifting was impacting lives and situations connected to me. 

When I looked back on that day, I realized God was orchestrating for good what the enemy meant for evil. My mom never stays up late and when I say never, I mean she faithfully went to bed at 6:30/7pm everyday to be up at 4:30/5am ish to prepare for work. This day was different. We were both up texting at 1am for some reason talking about God’s faithfulness. This led me to still be up when the prompting to pray came around 3am because I was wide awake after texting with my mom. Around 5am my mom got up to get ready for work and saw smoke and fire in the very area she was laying her head. The smoke detectors never went off but she was able to alert my grandmother to get up and get out of the house. Of course my grandmother took her sweet time knowing that God had her covered while she was grabbing her purse and cash that she had hidden in the house. You gotta love the elderly. 

News Report of the Fire that displaced my mother and grandmother and destroyed my childhood home in May of 2018.
News Report of the fire that displaced my mother and grandmother and destroyed my childhood home in May of 2018.

I received back to back calls from my aunt that morning and when I answered with a pounding heart because I had a feeling something was wrong, she told me she had bad news and the house nearly burned down from a fire. She told me the house and items in it were pretty much destroyed and non salvageable but thank you Jesus my mom and grandmother were able to get out completely UNSCATHED! 

In my God time later that night, I thanked God for His faithfulness and protection over my family. God told me clearly that it was my prayers that prevented an even worse tragedy from happening that the devil had planned with my mom and grandmother. In that moment, I realized had I not been obedient when the prompting to pray came, there could’ve been a much different outcome. This is why obedience is better than sacrifice. 

“But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.”1 Samuel‬ ‭15‬:‭22‬ ‭NLT‬‬‬‬

Until the next Faith testimony…