In light of the Thanksgiving Holiday celebrated in the United States this week, I pray this week has been filled with gratitude and thankfulness for you and your families. For some that has been your sentiments, but for others there has also been a wave of emotions of loneliness, grief and sadness. This is all too common for those who have dealt with the loss of a loved one and those who are in a place where they feel lonely during the holidays even without loss. You may feel hurt, sad, lonely, angry, confused, or even lost in the midst of the flood of emotions but it’s okay. I know that sounds kind of weird coming from a Christian blogger but I am here to tell you there is nowhere in the Bible that tells you to keep your emotions of grief bottled up. In fact, the Bible tells us in Matthew 5:4; “Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.” In the midst of the emotions and the thoughts that take us to that unwanted place, we have to realize that it’s okay not to be okay, but we just can’t stay there.
“Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.”
Matthew 5:4
It is normal to grieve loved ones who are no longer with us. It is normal to feel a certain way when we are attempting to celebrate a holiday that was once filled with their presence yet now it is not. Remembering the words they uttered when you saw them, the chair they once sat in, the meals they once cooked and even the warmth they made you feel just from being around them can all be a lot to process. It is okay to mourn the loss of that loved one and the very essence of who that person was to you. We just can’t stay there because when our emotions begin to lead over our God given spirit it leaves a foothold to the devil. The enemy would love to take any attempt to bring you down deeper into a state of mind that you once had control over but is now flooded with consuming thoughts taking you into a hole you can’t dig yourself out of. The Bible says in I Peter 5: 8, “Be sober, be vigilant: because your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” Therefore recognize when you have those moments, understand you are human and its okay for you to not be okay in those moments, then proceed to ask Jesus to help you stand on His word in faith and receive His perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3-4). This is better described in I Peter 5:9-10 where it states “Resist him(the devil), steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.
8 Be sober, be vigilant: because your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.
I Peter 5:8-10 NKJV
After you have suffered in the things you are going through, whether that is grief, sadness, loneliness, confusion, depression, physical pain or anything else not God given, God will perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. God will perfect meaning He will mend and restore what has been broken. He will establish meaning God will stabilize and render your mind constant. He will strengthen meaning God will make your soul strong. He will settle meaning God will lay the foundation and ground you there. God will do the work for you, you just have to trust Him and surrender the burden to Him.
For those who are having a difficult time this Holiday season here is a prayer for you to pray over yourself:
Father God in the name of Jesus, thank you for being Lord over all, not just in my high moments but also in my low moments. Thank you for Your love to comfort me in the midst of mourning and for Your perfect peace that surpasses all understanding as I keep my thoughts stayed on you. Thank you Lord for helping me to understand in my heart that as believers my loved ones may be absent from the body but are now present with You Lord and I will see them again. I thank you that my faith and trust are anchored in You and Your power at work in my life. I decree and declare I am more than a conqueror and the devil remains a defeated foe in my life. I decree and declare even in the midst of grief, You are perfecting, establishing, strengthening and settling me in Christ Jesus. And I thank you that I can forever live from a place of peace. In Jesus’ Name, Amen!
Until the next time…
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I want to talk about a topic near and dear to my heart today. The topic that saved my life. The very reason this blog was brought to fruition…FAITH.
Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1 NKJV
What is Faith? According to Hebrews 11:1 NKJV, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. Faith can also be described as complete trust or confidence in someone or something; a hope or belief. The Hebrew word for confidence is Bitachon, meaning to be at ease, to trust and to be confident. Think about when you put your trust in something or someone, there tends to be no doubt or disbelief in it, yet there’s also an assurance and certainty regarding that person or thing. This is how we ought to have faith in Jesus…with trust, certainty and assurance. This is the faith in knowing that He is the Son of God who walked this earth over 2000 years ago sharing the Good News and the message of God’s kingdom while also performing miracles including healing the sick, raising the dead and casting out demons (Matthew 10:7-8 NKJV). When Jesus laid down His life for us, dying on the cross yet was resurrected and is now seated at the right hand of Father God, His sacrifice forgave every sin/ iniquity and healed all of our diseases (Psalms 103:3NKJV). This didn’t just end in biblical times, we still have possession of the free gift of salvation that includes all of the above as our benefits.
In John 14:12-14 NJKV, Jesus says to His disciples, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works (in quantity) than these he will do, because I go to My Father (God). 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. Well this doesn’t just apply to the disciples then, it also applies to the modern day disciples, who happen to be us.
Where there is hope, there is Faith. Where there is Faith miracles happen.
Anonymous
Years ago I put my faith and this scripture to the test. Around this time in 2014, I nearly lost my eye from a fall that shattered my orbital floor in my right eye. The doctors wanted me to get surgery even though I didn’t live in the area where the incident occurred. They informed me that they would need to go in, lift my eye back up and put a plate in to keep the eye stabilized. I refused the surgery because my FAITH was in my eye fully healing on its own. Sounds crazy, but I knew this situation was no match for God. Due to the incident, I no longer had right peripheral vision, was sensitive to light and my brain and eye were not communicating so basic function like walking straight and turning when someone says something to you was very limited. During that week I laid hands on my eye and prayed to God that my eye would heal on its own without surgery. I backed my prayer with Mark 16:18 “…they will lay hands on the sick , and they will recover” trusting that God’s word was true and would work on my behalf. Once I returned home, I went to an ophthalmologist to make sure my vision was still okay and my eye hadn’t dropped and everything with my vision checked out good. I’d forgotten to give my CT scans to the doctor until the end of the visit. He came back looking like he’d seen a ghost and based on the scans recommended me seeing the plastic surgeon and getting the surgery recommended by the other doctors. Again my FAITH was in my eye fully healing on its own without surgery.
Shattered Orbital Floor CT Scan Shattered orbital floor and loss of peripheral vision in right eye Two weeks after the injury
Within 2 weeks my eye looked as if the injury had never happened and I had full functionality. Fast forward to my 6 month check up with the ophthalmologist, my eye had fully healed on its own with no changes to my vision and without any surgery! The doctor’s assistant came in and said “You know you’re really lucky because someone came in with the same issue and had to lose their eye. I told her “that’s not luck, that’s God! I could’ve literally lost my eye and according to the doctors the vision in the other eye would’ve diminished too…But God! He performed not just a miracle but a medically documented miracle for me! How, you ask? Because of my Faith. While faith sometimes doesn’t make sense, it does in fact make miracles.
Until the next faith testimony..
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Last week, I mentioned not to miss this week’s blog because it’s near and dear to my heart. Judging by the title you can tell just how dear to my heart it really is. You can also see that God actually gave me the title well in advance versus those eleventh hour revelations and 4 AM all-nighters per usual. That’s just like a loving Father; He knew the kind of reminiscing, processing and healing I would go through as I wrote this post, so He gave me time to rest in Him (See Matthew 11:28) prior to writing. I pray that those who can relate to losing a close loved one are comforted by this post.
This week makes 1 year of me losing the woman who raised me since I was a little girl, the woman who helped to shape my life and the matriarch and glue to our close knit family, my grandmother. Words can’t describe how big a loss this was to our family. Sometimes it still doesn’t seem real but the one thing I can take comfort in is knowing that I will see her again…because I know who she served; Jesus (See Joshua 24:15).
My reaction to the loss of my grandma was one that I couldn’t have expected because I thought when my grandma left this earth, they may have to put me in a padded room…But God. I’ll get to that part shortly though.
This is not your typical grief blog post. In today’s blog, I will share my life experience with my grandmother while she was living, in the midst of losing her and how I managed grief after she had gone to be with the Lord.
When I was young I practically lived with my grandparents. They kept me, fed me, clothed me and made sure I was in church EVERY Sunday. My mom worked full time and was in the Air Force Reserves so when I wasn’t with her or my dad I was with them. I was extremely close to my grandparents. So close that when my grandfather passed away, when I was in high school, I didn’t want my grandmother to be alone so I officially moved in with her. Though I saw my mom and little brother everyday, from the age of 14 through the majority of my college years, it was just me and her until I made the hard decision to transfer from my local university to finish my engineering degree at the main campus in another city. Most of my life’s decisions were centered around not being too far from my grandma. This included how far away I interned, which company I chose to work for after graduation that had locations in nearby states, work rotational assignment choices, and even where I decided to live after my job’s rotational program ended. I settled on a location just a 2 hours drive away from her and my mom since at the time, my mom was dealing with a health issue. I went so far as to pass up work promotions that were outside of close areas because I knew my priorities. I say all of that to say, family and my grandma was a top priority to me next to God.
Always by her side… Me and Grandma Circa 2016
My grandma was one of the healthiest seniors that I knew. She was up at 4 AM every day walking the neighborhood with a stick like it was her job. She was sharp with a sharp mind and a lot of sass. As the years passed my grandma had bouts with illness, knee replacements and other surgeries but always bounced back. I was there for each one of them. But last year was different…
One thing I have always been clear about was my God given assignment for the season. This particular season God let my husband and I know that we would be going on another mission trip to Peru together, leaving Oct 15th. He also opened the door to the opportunity for us to be co-speakers at the I’m Becoming Fearless Conference 2022 on Oct 8th. But there was one thing wrong…my grandmothers’ health was declining unlike any other time. During that time, I did what any intercessor (See 1 Kings 13:6 NKJV, NIV) would do and I went to war in prayer on my grandmother’s behalf. I was already feeling terrible and even guilty, if I’m being honest, that I wasn’t there with her like usual. Even though I was able to Facetime her, it just wasn’t the same. I wanted to rush up there for the quick 2 hour trip one weekend but God was leading me not to for some reason. I found out shortly after that there was something wrong with my vehicle’s front tire and it could’ve blown out while I was on the highway and only the Lord knows what could’ve happened…But God. This was a prime example of being led by the Spirit and not your flesh (See Galatians 5:16-18). That same weekend, I Facetimed with my grandma and even though I was feeling guilty for not being there, she told me she had a dream about me that I came into her hospital room, gave her her medicine and took care of her. After I got off the phone with her, I wept and thanked God for giving her that dream because only God could hear my hearts’ cry to want to be there for her.
A couple of weekends later towards the end of September, I was able to go see my grandma in person but she was not doing well. I went into the hospital room ready to lay hands on her, go up in tongues and call down fire from heaven for her to be well but in that moment I got a nudge from the Holy Spirit to just be a granddaughter that day. So I fed her as much as she would allow, cut and filed her nails and just talked to her. After leaving and seeing her in the state she was in, I told God please do not make me choose between the God assignments ahead and my grandma. Not that He was asking me to but I told God I couldn’t handle it if I was somewhere out of the country and something happened to her.
When I got home I sought wise counsel (See Proverbs 19: 20) from a trusted friend to understand how I needed to be praying over this entire situation. One thing the individual said to me was to ask the Holy Spirit what my grandma’s will was in all of this. Remember there is God’s will but we also have free will (See John 7:17). God responded to me that it was His will that grandma live to a specific age He mentioned that was beyond her current age. I knew His will always leads to life. I prayed concerning what her will was and God gave me a dream to show me exactly how my grandmother was feeling and the pain she was in. After that, I began to understand what may be ahead.
On a Tuesday morning, I received a call from my aunt telling me my grandmother had a massive heart attack. Doctors found it strange that the monitors showed she had the heart attack but didn’t feel it. The doctors stated she didn’t have much time. I asked my aunt to put her ear to the phone and I whispered some specific things to her the Holy Spirit led me to say, told her we will be fine and that I love her once, I love her twice, I love her next to Jesus Christ. I got off the phone and prayed then found out that she passed 8 minutes after I got off the phone with her.
My grandmother passed away on Oct 4th, 2022. The last thing she said to me when I saw her in person on September 22nd was “I love you once, I love you twice, I love you next to Jesus Christ. You take care of yourself.” While I was saddened after her death, I realized God had given the most beautiful gift, an answered prayer from years ago that He would prepare me before my grandmother left this earth and that I would be able to say “See you later” with no regrets.
My grandmother passed away on the 4th and there was still a God given assignment to fulfill on the 8th. I knew the devil would love for me to abandon my assignment but I was not going to give the enemy any satisfaction to take my grandmother prematurely (See John 10:10)and think I wasn’t going to fight back by fulfilling kingdom business. My husband and I ministered on the topic, This is the beginning of…The New Thing (See Isaiah 43:19). After I walked off the stage, I allowed myself to let go of the tears I had been holding all week in order to stay focused and through those tears I decided to live on serving others as she did when she was alive.
I’m Becoming Fearless Conference 2022
We celebrated my grandmother’s life at her funeral on Oct 14th. On that day I watched 12+ people give their lives to Christ because of how she lived hers. My message to our family was “Don’t die with her, choose to live for her! She has ran her God given race and now it’s time for us to pick up the baton and finish our own race. Keep running!”
Peru Mission 2022
The very next day I was on a plane headed on a mission trip to Peru where my husband and I ministered together again and saw countless people get saved, set free and miraculously healed. Again, I didn’t abandon the assignment because I chose to live for my grandmother. This was easier said than done but the way God covered and graced me during this entire time was truly beauty for ashes (See Isaiah 61:3). This was a pure testament of God’s grace is sufficient (See II Corinthians 12:9).
The loss of my grandmother taught me that God hears every prayer no matter big or small, current or past. He hears them. They may not be answered the way we want them to be answered or when we want them answered but He hears them and has a perfect plan that will work together for your good. I learned His grace is sufficient no matter the obstacle or circumstance. And I learned to never abandon the assignment because you don’t know whose life, whose next, or whose purpose is attached to it.
I will leave you all with this. If you are dealing with the loss of a loved one and struggling with grief, remind yourself of the promises of God. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matthew 5:4). May God turn your sadness into joy, your sorrow into praise, and your distress into peace. Death is not final when you are a believer in Jesus Christ. For those who believed in Christ and passed away will be reunited with those believers who are still alive when Jesus returns (I Thessalonians 4:15-18 NLT). Take comfort in knowing that it’s not goodbye but rather see you later.
Until the next faith story…
To be a part of the movement, share your own faith story Here!
If it’s one thing I know about God, it’s that He knows how to “WOW” you when you least expect it. But before I share what the WOW was, I want to share my heart with you all.
As we have been discussing Obedience the past several weeks and sharing the testimonies I’ve personally experienced connected to it; I have literally been walking out faith and obedience myself on a week to week basis. This has included waiting for the Holy Spirit ( See John 16:13) to share what topic and testimony to blog on, just in time for Friday’s post. And when I say just in time, I literally mean receiving God’s clarity on the topic around 10/11 p.m. on a Thursday night and writing until 3/4 a.m. when I have to be up at 7 a.m. for work. Remember last week’s blog… well this is a perfect example of what I mean when I say “It won’t be easy but it’s necessary”.
Some may say, “Why do I do it?” My answer will always be, “Because this is bigger than me”. It involves me but it’s not about me. It’s about the glory of God (See Romans 5: 1-2). All of this is so that you can experience hand delivered evidence of God’s goodness and faithfulness in the lives of people you may or may not know so that your faith will grow and be shared with all who you encounter. Sharing faith…to spread faith.
“Because this is bigger than me. It involves me but it’s not about me. It’s about the glory of God!”
-A Faith Traveler
Remember that unexpected “WOW” I mentioned earlier, well as I was working on updating the blog, I stumbled upon the analytics and discovered that this Blog has reached 34 countries! Read that again…34 COUNTRIES !!! This gave me a whole new perspective on what it means to ” Go and make disciples of all the nations” (See Matthew 28: 16-20) . Going no longer just means physically being there. You never know how God will use something for His glory. This wowed me because in just under 2 months God has taken something I was disobedient with starting since 2016, helped me officially start the site in 2020 even though I was inconsistent and now in 2023, He has breathed on it to reach all who He has ordained it to reach. This goes to show you that it’s never too late to walk in obedience with God. But trust me, you want to be obedient the first time God asks.
The Faith Travels Movement has reached 34 countries
In hopes that you all have been enjoying what has been shared on this blog thus far, I wanted to share something exciting with you. As I share these faith stories and testimonies week after week, this blog was not meant to just be stories about me nor for my benefit. It was meant to share the faithfulness of God and the Good News of Jesus Christ from around the world. With that being said, I want to give YOU the opportunity to be a part of the Faith Travels movement and share your story. I have received several faith testimonies that have been submitted within the past few years and as the Holy Spirit directs the topics, I will share them. So expect to hear some powerful testimonies from across the nations.
If you want to be a part of sharing faith to spread faith, please Click Here to submit your testimony. You won’t regret being a part of this global move of God.
A prayer for every Faith Traveler,
Father God in the name of Jesus, I thank you for each and every person that reads this. I plead the blood of Jesus Christ over those eager to share, those who are reluctant and scared to share their story and those who are just passing by to grab an ounce of faith in their trial through someone else’s overcoming triumph. I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit. Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
In Jesus Christ name I pray. AMEN
Stay tuned for next weeks’ faith testimony. This one is near and dear to my heart so you don’t want to miss it!
I’ve been looking forward to talking to you all this week! This was a week where I was eagerly anticipating Friday just to see what God wanted to say to you today because he of course didn’t give the title until the eleventh hour. I realized everything that He has me to write for you turns right back around and serves as a faith reminder and strengthener for me as well. This has really been a week, but for those of you who had a smooth sailing week, Praise God! For those of you who had a directionally challenged week like myself, meaning the week didn’t know whether it wanted to go good or bad…keep your head up, Thank Jesus and know that tomorrow is another chance to count it all joy (James 1:2-3)!
If you haven’t realized it yet, we are still touching on the topic of Obedience. At this point, I’m sure we recognize that this topic is important to God. This is why throughout the past few weeks of blogging, I’ve had the opportunity to self-reflect on my own acts of obedience to God and if I am being honest; those acts of obedience weren’t always pretty nor easy to walk through.
Obedience isn’t always just an act of kindness, a gesture or a matter of not doing something that sins against God. Obedience can look like taking a new opportunity that is difficult and stretches you to build character, it can be walking with God on a healing journey to uproot the symptoms of perfectionism and parental wounds, it can look like forgiving someone who has offended or hurt you badly or even praying for that person who recently betrayed you. This is why when you’re walking in obedience, it won’t be easy but it’s necessary.
“It won’t be easy but it’s necessary…” This was the very phrase that God whispered to me years ago during my time of sitting in His presence in prayer one day. It is a phrase that often echoes in my spirit whenever I realize that I have entered into a new season ( Ecclesiastes 3:1) that feels difficult or rather uncomfortable. I think about when I was at my last place of employment and I was being overworked with 3 jobs in 1, overlooked for promotion and treated in a manner that a lot would say was unfair. Even after an almost 10 year career there at the time, I wanted out immediately! I started updating my resume, refining my LinkedIn profile and applying for jobs wherever they were posted. All of that just for God to tell me “No, not yet”. I would respond, ” What Lord, what do you mean “No, no yet”…this entire situation at work is stressful, humiliating and frustrating and I know you can’t possibly want me to stay in this.” From that point on, I didn’t hear much from God on that specific matter until I would see a job posting that would peak my interest. In my excitement of seeing something I was interested in, I would eagerly go to apply and then hear God unexpectedly utter “No, not yet”, yet again. This went on for months, and I had already applied for positions including those I was over-qualified for. Again, I was desperate to get out. Well the funny thing (funny now but not back then) is that I was denied from every single job I applied for. Every. Single. One. This definitely hurt but then I realized there must be a reason God is literally not allowing me to move on from this job.
I sought the Lord specifically on this matter and He shared with me that even though He didn’t intend for me to be go through what I was going through the way I was going through it; in the midst of it all He was with me (Deuteronomy 31:8, Matthew 28:20) and would work it out for my good (Romans 8:28). The devil was using (Ephesians 6:12) specific people to taunt me and make me prematurely leave a place where God was still growing me up to prepare me for the places He was calling me to in the future. Not to mention, I was on assignment at work outside of my actual job, God had me to minister to specific people including maintenance contractors, janitors, the cleaning ladies I loved talking to and those that would come by to put a request in my prayer box on my desk.
Fast forward to 3 years later, after being at that employer for now 13 years, God opened a door to a new opportunity, a new industry and a new career path. A position I literally WAS NOT qualified for on paper…But God! This was true evidence to me that God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called. Though I didn’t see it at the time, God was building my character at my old job to prepare me for my new job and other future opportunities. He was strengthening my trust in walking with Him and His plan for my life, and positioning me for His perfect timing. It wasn’t easy but it was necessary.
I can recall one thing that God said to me in a different situation that is very much so applicable to this one, He said to me, ” Just because it’s not happening the way you expected it to, doesn’t mean you’re being punished…you’re being positioned.”
” Just because it’s not happening the way you expected it to doesn’t mean you’re being punished…you’re being positioned.”
-God
If you happen to find yourself in a place where you feel like things aren’t happening for you the way that you think they should and you are running into wall after wall, Look to God. If you have a feeling that there is more for you but you don’t see the path, Look to God. If you have a desire to live and walk out a purpose driven life, Look to God. The focus should always be Jesus(God) yet the path will be one intricately designed to take you from the test to the testimony and pit to the palace. It won’t be easy but it will always be necessary.
So I have to be honest with you. I definitely thought I would be starting a new topic this week. I started writing it out earlier in the week and God even gave me a story to go along with it, so I thought I would be finishing it up early and scheduling my post for Friday. Well as of 10:37pm on this good Thursday night, God has decided to give me something else to write about on the same topic of Obedience. I expect nothing less, because preparing a Holy Spirit led blog post on a weekly basis with a demanding work schedule, business, husband and daily life happenings, is a faith walk and act of obedience in itself. But I think of it like this, how can I minister to you on certain topics, unless I have experienced it myself.
I honestly believe God has me staying on this topic of Obedience for a very good reason. There are some of you out there who have yet to do the last thing God has asked you to do. How do I know…because this blog was one of the last things God asked me to do and He started asking me in 2016. But don’t waste time or follow my disobedience. Do it the first time God asks! Be that as it may, I will say if your disobedience clock is already ticking like mine was, it’s not too late for you to pick up where you left off and do the thing that God has asked of you. You have to always remember, it’s not about you and it’s bigger than you. Take my day for example, my work day was extremely rough and exhausting today but right before writing, I read one of my devotionals, and God gave me a sweet reminder through His word in Philippians 4:13.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13
This literally gave me the encouragement that I needed to keep going because it reminded me that I am not doing this in my own strength but in God given strength to fulfill my God given assignment for whomever God wills it to be for. I echo what I said earlier for myself, it’s not about me and it’s bigger than me.
Obedience, in its simpler biblical definition, means “to hear” and “to listen”. This ultimately means to be informed and to take heed. So in order to be obedient or take heed to God’s instructions, you have to first be able to hear God’s instructions. This comes through spending time with God, through reading His word (II Timothy 3: 16-17), worship (John 4:24) and prayer (I Thessalonians 5:17). The more you learn the character of God (I John 4:8,16) through intimate time with Him, the more you will recognize when He is speaking to you (Joshua 1:8). This doesn’t mean that you will hear an audible voice like you are talking to a friend sitting next to you. I, myself, have only heard an audible voice twice in my life. Once while falling asleep behind the wheel right before heading straight into the guardrails on the highway (A story for another day). The other time is explained in my 3rd Blog post right before I received healing in my body. Both times were early in my faith walk, not that that makes a difference, but now I personally believe I don’t have to depend on hearing His voice audibly. That’s because I know His voice ( John 10:27) from spending time with Him so when I hear that still small voice ( I Kings 19:11-12) inwardly in my spirit, I don’t doubt that I am hearing God speak.
It wasn’t easy for me to fine tune to God’s voice. Early in my faith walk when I was bound home due to illness, I begged God to speak to me and give me instruction. I prayed, fasted and kept a journal of the prayers I wrote to Jesus. Then one day I heard that still small voice that said, ” I was always talking, you just needed to listen.” From then on, I kept a journal of when God spoke to me so that I could reference back when I had doubt it was Him speaking to me. Each time I had a doubt, I was able to go back to what God said and confirmed that it was definitely not just my thoughts. There were times when what God was saying to me was straight out of His word, yet it was a scripture that I hadn’t read before, so when I stumbled across it in the Bible, I would be reminded that I was hearing God clearly.
Soon God began to give me mini assignments when He spoke to me. He would have me relay messages of encouragement to people, give small donations or even give them a hug. The part that wowed me was the confirmation from those same people that said “that was exactly what I needed to hear”, “that was the exact amount I needed to pay a bill” and “I needed that hug because of how down I was feeling today”. All of this was helping increase my faith that I was hearing God clearly.
One day God took the obedience assignment to another level. He told me to go to the store and get a loaf of bread and go to Anders Blvd. I went to the store and grabbed the bread. Then I thought to myself, “Anders Blvd…I’ve never even heard of that street before, I must not be hearing right.” I put the name of the street in my iPhone GPS and come to find out, that street was literally less than 5 min down the street from my apartment. I was actually shocked! I grabbed the bread, jumped in the car and headed down the street. As I was driving down Anders Blvd, I was waiting for additional instructions on where to stop but I heard nothing. I saw houses with confederate flags and big angry dogs in their yard and was praying to God for those not to be the houses He wanted me to go to. Though, if it was those houses I know God would have me covered. I got to the end of the dead end road and got sad and frustrated because I didn’t know what to do next. I parked and called a friend of mine and told her what was going on and since I knew she had been walking with God a lot longer than I had, just maybe she would be able to hear from God on what I wasn’t hearing. She prayed for and encouraged me and got off the phone. Seconds later, she sends a text that said, ” Sorry Boo, God said this is between you and Him.
Following the Voice of God to Anders Blvd in Jacksonville, FL
I sighed and asked God to tell me what to do. As I looked up while still sitting in my car, I saw a taxi van and heard God say follow that van. I followed the taxi through the complex and parked a few vehicles down. I watched a guy wearing a fast food restaurant uniform get out and go into one of the apartments. I hesitated, took a deep breath and got out of the car; heading towards the same front door of where the guy entered. I knocked and then I heard a deep angry sounding voice say, “Who is it ?!!”. I replied, Umm my name is Sheena. He opens the door and says, “Can I help you” in a nicer voice. I replied with the only thing, I could think to say, ” I know this may sound crazy but God told me to get some bread and bring it here, by any chance do you need some bread?” He said ” Yeah, yeah we do need some bread. Thank you so much!” He opens the door and introduces me to his girlfriend. They both shake my hand, thank me and I head back to my car. Tearing up from the relief of completing the assignment, I drive off and start to have a flood of thoughts, thinking maybe I should have done more like pray for them or invite them to church but then I realized if God wanted me to do that, He would’ve said that. Once I got home and prayed about my encounter, God revealed to me, “it didn’t matter what house or apartment you stopped at, no matter where you ended I would’ve made sure it was well. All I needed was your trust and obedience.”
I share all of this to let you know if there are some things that you believe God is leading you to do but you don’t have all the details, follow the last set of instructions He gave and trust that once you are obedient to that portion, He will give you the next. Trust God and be obedient in following His voice/ instructions because at the end of the day…It’s not about you and it’s bigger than you.
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.
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.
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
The Faith Travels 