Praise the Lord! It is Sunday, my favorite day of the week. It is worship, praise, testimony, and being fed with the word all in day. We have evening service this Sunday for the first time in a long time. I am just excited about going to church today. I love going to church and praising God – thanking Him for all that He has done for me. It amazes me how some people cannot go to church on Sunday for a few hours and praise the Lord. My church service starts at 11:30 AM and we are done most times by 2 PM, most times but I hear people complaining all the time how long services are at churches. Hummmm, you run around all week long doing what you want to do, given grace and mercy daily and you cannot spend 2 hours in worship with others once a week – shame on you!
Well I am on step 13 in both programs! I had to smile as I read the steps – Fellowship and Fisher of Men. Praise the Lord, two things I love to do outside of writing! I love fellowshipping with my fellow sisters and brothers in Christ, especially encouraging them to keep moving forward in the Lord. It is something how we all need that encouraging word from others, but the best part is when I encourage others, it gives me strength to keep moving forward too. WL4J (Women Living 4 Jesus Ministries) came about because of fellowship and my search to find other sisters to talk to and be honest with. It is rare to find that and I am thankful that I have found that. The very intent of WL4J is to fellowship, support, encourage and to do outreach, why is that – it is because it is so needed in this dying world.
I think sometimes people believe they have to have a title in front and after their name to do outreach to this dying world. I am not as bold as my husband yet, and I say yet because I am saying more and more to people that I do not know and truly outspoken to those that I am witnessing to. I prayed for holy boldness and that is coming with so many opportunities to be bold. God is good.
God has placed my husband and me in this neighborhood for His glory by witnessing and helping our neighbors. Minister Merv witness to the pizza delivery man the other day! It was a lesson for me, as I listened to him talk to this young man about salvation. It was awesome. I am blessed to be able to learn more of the Lord and do what He directs us to do. I am thankful for blessing me to be who I am in Him. It is truly a blessing to know that the Lord is in my life and leading me to have a closer relationship with Him.
I love serving the Lord. I used to have a ‘cold’ heart for mankind, never really caring what was going on with others, but now in Jesus, I cry at movies and feel compassion for the characters who I know is not real. I was talking with a woman here in my neighborhood that is going through stuff with her husband and it tore at my heart to hear her pain. I wanted to talk to her hubby myself, but my husband thought it would be best if he did, as I might have been ‘a little harsh’ with him.
Which reminds me, we need to make decisions based on the direction from the Lord, if we do not know the answer, wait upon the Lord and listen clearly. Sometimes we do not do this and end up making decisions that we were not supposed to do. It is easier said than done, but the closer to the Lord we get, the more we know that we have to listen to Him and follow His direction or we will end up back where we were or worse off than before. God will bless you to know the difference if you continue to walk with the Lord hand in hand.
Okay my truth for today…I cannot stand whiney people and they are truly ones that get under my skin and make it hard to witness to. I have been in much prayer about this because I am surrounded by people who complain and whine all the time. I am not talking about the unsaved, but my saved sisters and brothers in Christ…it drives me nuts. It is just something that really bothers me, and I am not talking about the ones that call you or talk to you only when they have something on their minds, I am talking about the ones you say…How are you and all you get is mess back at you? I get so frustrated with them because no matter how much you tell them how awesome God is, they always come back with a “yes, but” to all that you have said. Ugghhhh…Lord grant me with patience with my sisters and brothers who have yet to come to where I am in you. Grant me with the love of you to hold my piece and not slap them silly as they are aggravating to me. For Lord I know they need my prayers just as much as the next person and I will try my best to stop avoiding them and witness to them even more.
It drives me nuts that people that God has blessed so tremendously – dwell on the negative all the time. God has blessed us all, we need to be thankful for what we have and stop being so negative, if we stay in our negativity, that is what will start to happen for the power of life and death are in our tongues. I just keep praying that those that are still in the negative state of mind, who accepted Christ in their lives, will come to know Him better because the bottom line is that their walk needs to be more in line with Him for as the closer we get to the Lord, the more love we have. I included, I need to get closer to the Lord so that those that do those things do not work my last nerve.
Well it is time to go upstairs and get the guys together for church and get myself together too. Have an awesome day in the Lord and know that God is truly with you, walking with you and loving you! God Bless!
Love your sister in Christ,
Sister Alissa Lynne
Praise the Lord! It is the weekend baby! No work slept in and just relaxing pretty much, Thank you Jesus for the long weekend! Well I am on step twelve in the two programs I have been doing. I took the Am I Called test again, and increased in my answers, which kind of surprised me somewhat, but I think it is because I understood the questions better. The other part talked about falling down and getting back up. Oh yes, we all fall down but what makes the difference to me is if we get back up again. I think that is where the enemy gets so many people caught up in their walk with the Lord.
So many churches are still teaching that you fall down how awful it is, sure we sinned but if we repent from that sin and move past it, we will see that the Lord will forgive us. He knows we are not perfect, He knows our hearts. I believe that if we are truly sorry for what we did and ask for forgiveness, He forgives us faster than we forgive ourselves. We are truly in need of knowing that He is love, the perfect example of life. He is full of love and compassion for us. He forgives us, but we still have a hard time forgiving ourselves. He is so awesome in His forgiveness, but let us not be fooled either, we have to reap what we sow too. Yet even in that, He is with us!
Let me see what my truth is for today…my writings are done for me. LOL I write to release myself and just feel compelled to share. I am not sure if that is a big secret or not, but today is such a wonderful day that I cannot begin to get my mind into that mode today! LOL I love to write and express myself as it truly frees me from the demons and my own fleshy thoughts. When I am writing about the Lord, all things are well with me and I feel like I am in the safety of His arms. Why is this…because I am thinking of the Lord, just the name of Jesus changes things so writing about Him is so awesome!
WOW – that is all for today, I just feel so good and have such a positive look today more than any other day, maybe it is because I am about to go shopping to get some food! LOL I love to go to the grocery store and get food! So I shall end this for today, I might be back!!!
Love your sister in Christ,
Sister Alissa Lynne
Praise the Lord, for those of us in the US, hummmmm….we are on a long weekend if we are blessed to have a job that gives us Labor Day off. I am looking forward to that! AMEN! Well I am now on day eleven – man time flies when you are having fun!
I am in tune with today’s lessons – Discernment/Holy Spirit and Surrendering. I could not live my life without the Holy Spirit directing me. I look back at when I first came to Jesus and now – WOW – Thank you Lord. In the beginning of my walk, I was just so lost for I did not really understand the Holy Spirit leading me at all. Yet I was feeling so out of line in things in my life. I kept saying to myself, there has to be more than this.
See I came to Jesus because my marriage at that time was falling apart, it was in shambles and he left me for another woman. I did not have any self esteem and thought I was nothing without him. I felt like a failure. I was just an emotional heap of tears all the time. I went to church to get rid of that pain and I felt a “spark” from the Lord. I went to the front of the church on July 17th, 2005 and was baptized on July 24th, 2005, yet I did not know that the fire was beginning then and needed more kindle to keep going. Well, I was thinking that immediately my life was going to change and be different with NO effort on my part.
I was still depressed and did not know how to pray about anything at all. I went through what I call now – “the motions” without understanding what I was doing or saying. I had made the first step in accepting Jesus but I did not allowing Him into my heart. I kept Him at that time at arms distance, not really allowing Him to abide in me so I was truly not abiding in Him. From February 18, 2005 to December 29, 2005, I allowed my ex husband to keep me on an emotional rollercoaster that almost destroyed me. The enemy used my self hate against me, he had me thinking that I was nothing without this man in my life, he had me feeling like a complete failure not only as a wife, but a mother, and a person. Despite the initial turning my life over to the Lord, I did very little to build my relationship with the Lord. I attended church as that was the only place I had peace, but I did not know how to function outside of church. My mind was in charge, so I sunk more into depression and started slacking on going to church.
On December 29, 2005, that was my next step to moving closer to the Lord and I will remember that day for the rest of my life. To make a long story a little shorter, I went to my not ex yet house with his girlfriend at 2 AM – banging on the door – armed with a baseball bat and a gun! I had plans on killing whomever answered the door and then myself. As I started banging on the door and waking up the entire neighborhood as I screamed at the top of my lungs, I heard the Lord tell me “STOP – GO HOME!” I obeyed, not knowing how I got home as I was a ball of tears. I called my aunt who talked to me and to this day will tell you that she thought she was going to have to have me placed in the hospital that night, but the prayers of a righteous woman availth much as she was praying as I was crying. Yet it was the true beginning of my healing, I released all those tears to the Lord and after getting of the phone with her laid in the bed, listening to the Lord talking to me.
I know it was the Lord for I could not think straight and the words that were coming to my mind were just full of comfort and love, only Jesus can do that. Mind you, I hated who I was. I looked in the mirror that morning after listening to the Lord speak to me and I looked in the mirror for the very first time and saw a woman – a beautiful woman however brief it was, I saw her. It was my first step to freedom in Jesus. Now, do not get me wrong, did I change over night – hecks no! But Jesus was with me and I saw Him more and more. I did not spend New Year’s Eve in church that year as I spent it with my sister and her family, yet I started feeling out of sorts with what they were doing. I thought then that it was because I was still feeling some sort of way about my soon to be ex, but it was the Lord molding me. I went to Cleveland for my birthday (Feb 17) in 2006 and it was then as I laid in the bed at the hotel that the Lord spoke to me. I tried so desperately that weekend to go back to my “old” ways of using men for comfort and just being that old Alissa before my marriage, and the Lord stopped it. He spoke to my heart and let me know that I was His and I had tried it the wrong way for so many years of my life, why not try it the right way in Him.
It was then that my entire life changed, literally, it was like a light went on in my heart. I left Cleveland that next morning, feeling so much better and more peaceful. When I got home, out went the things that did not glorify the Lord in my home and I started going to church more, I started really getting into blogging and writing about my experiences and guess what – Minister Merv and I started taking our friendship to yet another level. God is just good in that manner, when we truly listen to Him and do as He instructs us to do, all the pains of this world mean nothing and I mean nothing to us.
He said that His yoke is easy and His burden is light and it was not until I submitted myself unto the Lord did I truly understand what that meant! God is truly calling us to walk with Him and some of us get it right away and others take a little longer – but the important part is that we get it before it is too late.
Now for the truth of the day….I am tired! LOL Yes that is true but not the real truth. Hummmmmm….let me think hard on this one…hard to think of a truth confession when it is the holiday weekend and payday – come on now – how awesome is that! LOL
Okay – got it….insecurities….I have them and one of them is about the path that the Lord has laid before me. Now I know it is of the enemy and I know that God is keeping me, for He is truly the only reason why I am on this path in the first place, yet I can not help but from time to time get insecure about it. What I mean is that I write things such as this and truly wonder if I am living up to what God wants me to live up to. I have a big fear of hearing – “ I know you not ye worker of iniquity” as I know that there are going to be some who do things in the name of Jesus but because their heart is not in the right place they will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. Well, I am afraid of hearing that, I know that is a good thing as the Lord tells me that keeps me “in check” with Him and His direction. Praise the Lord – it just came to me….oh thank you Holy Spirit –
Philippians 2:11-13 11And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.12Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Okay this is no joke – I was typing the confession and that scripture came screaming at me – well the part about fear and trembling…thank you Jesus! How can we not serve a God who when you are just writing down your thoughts and He answers you with His word! I love it!
I was just thinking about this when I woke up this morning. Okay here I go but I have to tell it…My hubby is a huge snorer, he snores so loud that if you are downstairs, you can hear him snoring even with the door to our bedroom shut. Well, I have a hard time sleeping sometimes, I do not care too much about it on the weekends, but during the week, it is hard as I get up at 5:30 AM.
I have started something new about it…I pray about my sleep for the night before going to bed. I ask the Lord to grant me a restful sleep. Most times my hubby is snoring so loud that around 4 AM, I wake up and have a hard time going back to sleep. Well, this morning at 4 AM, I requested God to have him get quieter with his snoring so I could go back to sleep. I literally said Lord, please let him get quiet so I can sleep – please Jesus. Well guess what, he must have got quiet as the next thing I know that alarm is going off telling me to get up! Praise the Lord. I am in awe of how the Lord will do things like that when we are in need and just ask. As the word says…
John 14:12-14 12Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. 13And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
Luke 11:9-10 9And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
AMEN!!! Praise the Lord for His word! Well until tomorrow – have a wonderful and blessed day in the Lord! Thank you Jesus for your love!
Praise the Lord – what a beautiful day it is today! I am going to start with the honesty part of my blogging as I am posting this in several places and feel led to open this part of me so that someone knows that they are not alone. Since I post this in 3 different places, please do not be offended by my honesty. Praise the Lord! This blog today is long and has a sensitive subject for those that are not comfortable talking about sex, I do not go into any graphic detail but I do talk for a moment about my past and current sex life, and I tried to do it with taste and décor as my mom would say. I want to be open and honest with not only myself but with all for I walked most of my life with secrets all inside of me and now I am free in Jesus and there is no such thing as secrets anymore.
Today is Day Ten in the CO programs and today hit some things I am truly very outspoken about. Prayer and The Word of God…or as step 10 states Feeding the Sheep. Oh how wonderful it is to be able to have both – prayer and the word of God.
But first, today, a truth of me…since I was a child of abuse, the fact of being intimate was never an easy thing. I hated sex, but used it to get what I wanted out of guys. Whether it was money, clothes, attention, affection, movies, dinner, food, shelter, a ride, or whatever it was that I needed at that moment, I gave away my body for it. My body meant nothing to me and I mean it meant nothing. So I gave it away freely. It is not something that I am “proud” of but nothing that I am ashamed of either because my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has blessed me to be who I am in Him. He has forgiven me and giving me peace of mind to forgive myself. I went through all my relationships with that same thought…that I hated sex. I did not really care for the actual act of it. I hated it! Yes, I was married twice before and the extent of my intimacy with them was a big fat faking it. They never knew as I was good at the game, I played it my entire life. I knew what to say and how to move – so what did they know? Nothing at all, as I am sure if you ask them today if I enjoyed it, they would say yes.
Well when Minister Merv and I started courting, in one of my pleas to run him off, I told him how I hated sex and really got nothing from it. He was very silent as he listened and then he started questioning me. As I think back now, I know it was the Lord directing His questions as he grilled me about why I did not like it. I told him all that I stated above, and his statement was you have not been loved yet. So we kind of let that go. As we got closer in our relationship, I was glad that we were remaining celibate because I knew I loved him and did not want to be disappointed in the act of making love yet again. So I prayed. I talked to the Father about my issues. I told Him it all of how I felt. He started talking back to me, giving me scriptures to calm me and to show me that it will be all right.
I have to laugh now as I felt a change in my body, just a desire for Minister Merv that I thought never possible. It was hard in the last few weeks of our courting before our wedding to keep my hands where they needed to be and that was to myself. I started getting nervous yet again about our wedding night, yet in prayer the Lord calmed me. I knew he was nervous too because it had been a long time for him too. Well here comes our wedding night and I all but shouted praises to the Lord. I am thankful to God for working it out and for the first time in my entire intimate life, I can say that I am enjoying myself. God is good and truly worthy of all praises. There is nothing too hard for God and we need to trust in Him, believe His word, and take all things to Him. He will work it out for you. Sure I have moments even now when some of the past creeps up in the bedroom as there are “touches” that send me to the old world, but God blesses even that for my husband “pays attention” and is not ashamed to ask questions and I am no longer ashamed to answer! Praise the Lord for the growth!
I was reading the Many Called Few Chosen part with the feeding the sheep and it was stating how some religious leaders back in Jesus days was always quoting the law to Him and what not, yet we have the same thing still this day. When you are giving the word of God to some, they try to come at it with the politically correct attitude. It is the same thing. Amazing how the game never changes, just some of the players do, but in it all Jesus is real and there! AMEN!
I truly am one that loves to talk about the word of God and truly spreading His love wherever I go and always praying for the Lord to give me the guidance that is needed along with the discernment too. I learned real quickly that when you are planting the seeds in people, sometimes you are not the one that actually places the seed, sometimes you are the one digging the hole for the seed to be planted. What I mean is this…as I talk to women (mostly); most times they come to us (whether WL4J or my hubby and me), because they have a need. They are in need of money, food, clothing, shelter, or any other kind of need. I have learned to meet that need or help them understand how to meet that need before I even really get into witnessing to them. Some times all I say is praise the Lord for God is good or something like that when I am meeting their need. Well I met the need which is making the hole; I even pulled out the seed and let it drop in the hole, which was my praising of God in front of them. Then someone else will come along and cover up that seed with some dirt by giving them yet another word, along with the next person fertilizing with another word, then here comes Jesus watering it so that it will grow and they come to a better understanding in Him.
It is awesome to be able to sit in the presence of people and you know that you are planting a seed, whether it is the first or the final planting of the seed, it is all the same joy because you know that they are going to hear the word, and you pray that they accept it for the truth and in turn accept Jesus, you may never see them do that but the joy of know that they could just moves me.
We had a two men come to bible study this past Tuesday at our home. (My hubby and I conduct a neighborhood bible study in our home) One of the men, we know took the electronic bible that I gave as a gift to my hubby before we were married for Christmas last year. The Lord let me know it was him and I listen to him talk (the neighbor). It was truly awesome to see this man “in action” as I know I am watching a testimony being built to the glory of God. This man comes in the house one day and my hubby shows him his electronic bible and then that night we can not find it. Now, it is believed that this man took it because he has this habit of things. Never once thinking he would take the bible, we did not say a thing to him. Actually my husband and I have not even really talked about it except for the fact that I stated to him, you know D took your bible right…he said yes. End of conversation – no need for more on that subject. We know that God will bless with yet another one, no need to fret over that.
Well D comes to bible study this past Tuesday, which is the first time he has ever done so, usually it is just his wife. Well, he is a talker, most times, you give him the floor, out of his mouth words fly and he just goes on and on about nonsense and lies. The Lord has blessed us to know this, but during the bible study as Minister Merv is going over the lesson, he is quiet. This is the first I have ever seen him do so, it is the first time he has ever been quiet. Of course the minute bible study is over, his mouth starts going, but I had to smile because he heard the word. He heard the word of God go forth and I am thanking God for that!
The other young man, we shall state as H. He is also listening and not saying a word. When it was time to come in the house, he was really amazing me because he stood at the door as if he did not want to come in, but my hubby invited him in and kind of just took him under his wing at that moment. H sits the entire time not saying a word, I think I heard him say yes twice during the bible study. After it is all over and done, I watch this young man’s face as he said that he used to go to church and he used to live for the Lord. His face was full of pain and it was full of questions. We let him know that we are here for him and if he needs to talk to us to come on by. You can see the Lord just working on him and it was so awesome to see. I saw the pain in his face, but I saw the light in his eyes. He heard what my hubby was saying in bible study, he heard every single word of it!
We do what we do because we were there once, we were liars and thieves and just no dag on good for we did not accept the Lord as our life. I am thankful to the Lord for His word so that I may live my life according to His will and ways which is truly the only way that my life has any meaning.
The other part for today is from the Confidential Christian Counseling and its message is yet another one of my favorite topics…prayer! Oh how I love to pray! I love my time with the Lord and just talking to Him…I love talking to Him throughout my day and truly do my best to pray without ceasing! AMEN!
I was blessed with an aunt who told me once about prayer when I was new in Christ…praying is talking to the Lord, talk to Him like you talk to anyone else. Have a conversation with Jesus…well that is all I needed to know. I am a talker, writer and a listener – I can do that! AMEN! Well, that is exactly what I do. One of the best prayers to me is John Chapter 17 – take the time to read it if you have not done so recently.
How awesome it is to have our prayers answered, to be able to just talk about what is on your mind to the Lord. He already knows anyhow. I mean I am frank about my conversations with my friends and in my writings, why not with Jesus? Of course I respect Him and who He is but I do not hide who I am from Him, so to speak. If I am angry, I talk to Him, and tell Him so. If I am hurting, I tell Him so. For example…lol man do I have many of those but let me use my favorite one…
I used to smoke 2 ½ packs of cigarettes a day, I had a desire to stop smoking but not much determination because it was a habit that I was so used to doing. On April 29, 2006, Minister Merv, who I was courting at the time, prayed with me to stop smoking. Well, I woke up the next morning and lit a cigarette – guess what – it was the worst thing I ever tasted. I was light headed and so ready to pass out. I was also very angry at Minister Merv for taking it from me. I did not blame God; I blamed Merv for praying a powerful prayer. I was not happy and could have kept smoking but God nudged me and I stopped that day. I had a really bad day that day…it was a Monday. It was a rainy day, it was a stressed day at work as I could not stand my job, I had stopped smoking on a Monday, I was just at my wits end on my drive home. A 10 minute ride turned into a 25 minute drive as I was driving home sitting in traffic that is not normally there, I started talking to the Lord. I was actually yelling at Him…I was telling Him that He said I could do this because greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. I yelled at Him how He said I was more than a conquers in Him and if He did not do something about this I was going to the store to buy a pack of cigarettes. I stopped yelling and said to Him as serious as I could, mind you I am talking aloud, Lord, I am trying to do this…I have been in this car for over 15 minutes now, I have to pee, I am going to be late picking up my son…you said you would never leave me nor forsake me and if my body is to be your temple and I need to quit smoking – you have to do something. I told Him what my plan was too. I told Him how if nothing changed, after going home to go to the bathroom BEFORE I pick up my son, I was going to the gas station and getting a pack of cigarettes and smoking until I can smoke no more. I started singing after that…just to calm my nerves.
I went home, went to the bathroom and as I was coming out of the bathroom – I received several text messages from Minister Merv telling me how proud he was of me, how proud God was of me, and how greater is He that is in me than he that was in the world, for I am more than a conquer in Jesus, the next text said – Jesus said you can do this! Well I have never put another cigarette to my mouth since then and I have had the thought cross my mind but man, it is gone within a matter of seconds!
We need to be honest in our prayers, He knows what is on our minds already and we need to just give it all to Him. I was talking to a neighbor the other day and she is going through some things and I said to her…go to your room, close your door and pray unto the Lord, just let all that is in you out…do not answer your phone, your door or anything – just pray until you feel better. She said she poured it all out, and I did not say anything as I know that she did not understand what I was saying. I prayed for her before she left and will continue to pray for her to come to that understanding.
I have heard from others that they can not pray, their minds start to wander. I have that same problem sometimes, and instead of praying silently, I pray aloud to the Lord as it keeps my mind where it needs to be which is on the Lord. I have learned that when I am going through something, I have to pray until I feel better. I do not get up from being on my face before the Lord until I feel better. If that means I am there for a long time, I am there for a long time. It does not matter, as just as this step states, that we are to listen too. I will lay there pour all that I have out and then wait on His answer or His side so that I am filled up yet again. For when I do not wait for Him to fill me up again, then I never truly let it all go for it will come back to me as I am empty.
Just because we have a prayer life does not mean things will not happen, it just means that we can deal with the situation better because we are talking to the Lord and hearing from Him too for our direction. I love talking to Jesus and looking forward to physically be sitting at His feet hearing Him talk when I see His face one day. I look at my praying as just that. I am sitting at His feet telling Him all things in me and soaking in all that He has to tell me so that I can be refreshed and loved in Him. How awesome is that! I am so ready to praise the Lord right now! He is so good to me! I pray that everyone comes to have a fulfilling communication life with the Lord in prayer as it is truly awesome to be able to talk and listen to Him!
Yes, yet another long one...praise the Lord if you read it all and I pray you got something out of it to help you too! I know I did – it is a blessing to release! AMEN!
Love your sister in Christ,
Sister Alissa Lynne
What a beautiful day! Praise the Lord! It is beautiful for I am alive. As I read Part Nine in the program today, I had to laugh as to the reference to What Would Jesus Do (WWJD) as I just wrote about that yesterday. As I prefer What Did Jesus Do (WDJD) instead, so I found it so cute and it shows that I am not pre reading the steps. LOL Praise the Lord!
Today’s steps in each program, I am thankful for today’s steps I have been doing in my life since coming to build my relationship with the Lord. It is something for the very first thing I did was rid myself of so much “stuff”. One that is still hard for me is music, I was a huge R & B, mellow jazz fan, I mean HUGE!! I loved to dance and I loved to listen to that music. When my son came along, Friday nights were Jonathan and I dancing the night away, well at least until his bed time. We used to have a ball doing that. I noticed for me, I had to give all that kind of music up for what it did to my mind. It would have my body moving in movements that are not of God, and surely the thoughts that it invoked in me was not of God either. I always felt like I was doing something wrong in listening to that music, so when my commitment to my walk grew stronger, the music of my past was gone.
I started to listen to some of the gospel and praise/worship songs, WOW, was all I could say. Some of it sounded just like the stuff I used to listen too, LOL, it also started reminding me of things back in the day, so I started limiting myself to what I was listening too even in the Christian music venue. I listen still to some jazz music, but only the instrumentals with no singing of others, yet and still some of it I can not listen too. I listen to the direction of the Holy Spirit in me to make that determination. Most times any more, if I am in my car, I am listening to the word, or nothing but the sounds of Sister Alissa Lynne, plus the lovely playing and singing of my gospel husband who is a musician.
I am blessed to be able to surround myself with the sounds and words of God while I am at work. I am blessed because we can listen to whatever we want to listen to on our computer or headsets. It is a wonderful perk in my job as it was not always this way for me. God knows what we need and how we need to do it. He has blessed me to be able to surround myself with Him and I really have no excuse as to why not. I was blessed to move from a supervisor position to a desk position. I was going through so much in the beginning of my walk, at that time; Jonathan’s dad and I were going through our separation, my mother had passed away, the job location had changed, and I was sick all the time and did not know what was wrong with me. I was trying to walk as God called me to walk, but oh everything was coming at me so hard. God blessed me – I was just so stressed and could not see straight, all I could do was call on Jesus.
Well that was all I needed to do, I talked to another manager of the department that I was working for, and he was moved to have me placed as his assistant until I could find something else in the company. Come to find out, if I would not have moved, someone would have lost their position, another supervisor as I had enough seniority to keep mine and I really could not stand my job anymore. Praise the Lord! I found a position within the company and never lost my pay. I moved down to an hourly pay scale, but never lost the money I was making. In corporate America, that is a miracle! AMEN! I am blessed!
When I moved from the supervisor position, I have been able to surround myself with the Lord all day long and not be in jeopardy of losing my job. I am blessed. So I know that the Lord can make a way to bring you where you need to be in Him if you trust and believe in Him. It is easy for me these days to surround myself, it is habit now. With all the writing I do for blogs and WL4J, along with the books and radio shows, I am in the word constantly, let us not forget my own personal reading, our neighborhood bible study, and witnessing to others! I LOVE IT!! I would not have it any other way. God is so good! If we want to be in Him, He gives us the ability to do so, it is all about our determination.
I think that is really what makes the difference between all of us. As I was reading the part about judging, in the beginning of my walk, I used to wonder what was wrong with people. Why are people not doing this or why are they not doing that? If I can get it and understand it why are they not doing that too? What is wrong with them? LOL It was after the Lord started dealing with me in this manner, after He had me start several support groups for abuse and eventually the women’s ministries, that I came to see why it was the way it was. We are all different people; we are not all the same, so we all learn at different paces along with different manners of learning. Some of us are more determined than others, and some are just not sure of where they stand yet. It is nothing new or anything that is going to change either, people are people and I have learned to look past all that and remember that I may get one thing clear and yet the other thing may not be so clear to me as it is to others. For example, I never understood death; I just did not get it. It just seemed like what I was taught did not line up with the bible, so I had to rethink it all over again. It is something how some people understood what I did not and yet when they tried to explain it to me, I did not get it. It was not until after I asked God to reveal it all to me that I came to a better understanding. God is awesome like that!
It is really something when you think about it, we have to be mindful if we do look at others, for the same measure stick we use for them will be used for us. I was just reading the other day as I was working on the “Good Morning” inspirational emails that I send out, the story of the woman who was charged with adultery.
John 8:4-11 4They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. 5Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? 6This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. 7So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. 8And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. 9And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. 10When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? 11She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
This should be a lesson for us all, but yet and still let us remember not to put up with those that are misleading others to their deaths either. I think many times we get confused and do not realize that we can speak the truth to a sister or brother in Christ without condemning them. We give them the true word of God, and step back, God’s word will do what God’s word is to do, not us beating them up with the word of God or harping on them about it. I say it is correction in love; we can correct someone in love, even though there are situations in the bible where correction is to save the body of Christ as in when Paul was speaking of putting out the man because of the sins that he was committing and how it was corrupting the church. (I believe it is in Corinthians but I could be wrong – hey that is a good exercise to do – you find it! LOL) Plus there is a judgment that we are to do that is righteous judgment. (John 7:24)
I try to stay away from it as I believe that the same measuring stick that I use for others is the same one that will be used for me, so as long as it is lining up with the word of God, then it is cool but once my own opinions and thoughts come into it, ugghhhhh that is ugly. Yet another reason why I live by WDJD (what did Jesus do) He forgave all. Loved all, and gave them the word of God, with three good words added on “sin no more”, which is how I try to do others. I have a harder time with those that are in leadership, as I would love to speak to some of them about their tactics of doing things but I do not believe I will be given the opportunity to do so. Minister Merv, my hubby, always puts on his ministering cap when it comes to me in those areas because I am not very tolerant of those in leadership who are leading those down the wrong path. I have to remember to love them too. LOL I speak against all wrong even in my own life. Too many of us are speaking on the wrong things and not the things that need addressed, the unsaved are just that, unsaved and need prayer, the saved are just that saved and need prayer!
Now the honesty part of my writings today...the different levels of others really get me going sometimes. I still pray much about this because there are some things to me that is just plain and clear – yet I look at others and go – WHAT THE HECK? You said you love Jesus why the heck did that come out of your mouth. LOL I have learned that people think the same things about me, or wonder where my brain is in my writings or other communications too. It helps a little bit, but there are just some subjects I am very passionate about that I have compassion for others but do not give me a line of mess in our conversation about it, or the seriousness of me is going to come out.
I listen to women talk about abortions they have had, I listen to the stories of women killing their children, I listen to Christians talk about having sex with a person who is not saved or saved, I listen to people who act as if you have to have a major theology degree to write anything or be the leader of anything without it. These are a few topics that get me going…let me go with the one that screams the loudest today…
I am not perfect, far from perfect, and never even say that I am because the only one who is perfect is Jesus Christ himself! AMEN! It bothers me that now Christians put this spin on things that if you do not have some kind of doctor degree in theology, that you can not possibly run a ministry. I see so many Doctor this and PHD that with Christians, that I do not disrespect the education – please understand me, but the Lord used uneducated people along with educated people. Some how the body of Christ has come to think if a person does not have a title they are not worth listening to. There are so many gifts and talents that God has blessed so many of us with that it is not just the ones with titles that are to be listened too. It is the ones that God directs us to listen to.
I believe that if you study the word of God, you are just as “good” as those that got their doctor degree in theology. Now if I had the ability to go to school to do so, would I do so, yes I would, for the knowledge and I pray that those that do go to school are going for all the right reasons. I heard one person say once that now a days you need a degree to get any one to come to your church – WHAT??? Hummmm since when did prayer stop working?
God has blessed me to be the founder of Women Living 4 Jesus ministries, along with being the wife of a wonderful man of God who has the compassion and desire to spread the gospel to all those he meets, well we are equally yoked! AMEN! We do as God directs us to do and we stand tall in knowing that His will is to be done. We take what God gives us and bless others with it because that is what we are to do, does that make us any less capable of doing the work of God – hecks no!! We are blessed!
I have a desire to reach out to all women who are still in bondage in their walk with the Lord and give them encouragement to keep moving forward in the Lord each day. I know that there are people who charge for this service, yet I do it freely because this is what the word of God says. It hurts my heart to see where some Christians are looking at how the word of God or doing what God has told us to do freely, charge for it. Now that is not to say taking donations is bad, not saying that at all, yet and still, what I am saying is that it should be a free donation of love from others.
The Lord has given me a vision of WL4J and where it is going and what it will do, I always saw it on a small scale until recently. The Lord has stated it is on a bigger scale than I thought it would be as I am shy about things still in that area, but yet and still He is molding me. It is fired behind my biggest pet peeve that I have with Christians, and I prayed long and hard with the Lord over this. We at WL4J do not charge for a thing for any of our services that we offer. Not a red cent, do we accept donations, sure we do, but not in the normal way either. We have workshops and trainings that we do not charge to facilitate, now do we request that if the distance is a far distance that room and board be paid, of course we do, but yet and still, if we have the money to put ourselves up we will do it.
I had grown so tired of everyone doing something for money when in essences there are sisters and brothers in Christ who are suffering every single day and just a word of encouragement can go a long way. I am tired of people just needing someone to listen to them, yet they have to pay to get that done too. It can be tiresome when you open yourself up to offering those things but it is all worth it when even just one person is stronger in Jesus because of the Lord using you! One thing I love about Christianity Oasis is that sure you take donations, but the time that was put into this site and the time that goes into the site in helping others is so much more worth what you put into it because of the love, the compassion, the help, and direction that is given. There are all kinds of things offered and I was excited to place this site on our web sites that we have so that all those that are looking can find true help.
It is time for all of us to be a blessing and stop looking for the blessing. It is about loving the Lord not getting what we can out of it. I am proud to be the founder of Women Living 4 Jesus Ministries and I am equally proud to participate at the Christianity Oasis too, it is one of the sites I visit daily and plan on doing so for as long as the Lord directs me to do. There are a lot of lessons to read in the Bible Studies section. Praise the Lord!
Oops, got on my rampage and did not get into my complete honesty thing, started it and went off somewhere. Anyhow…I am a sister who believes in blessing others and it bothers me beyond belief when others do not, which includes my hubby. NOW do not get me wrong, he truly believes in blessing others big time, just our dollar figures do not always add up to the same dollar. LOL We had a serious disagreement on that the other day and after I said my piece about it, in the store, I had to be silent for the Lord showed me that the enemy was working at trying to get there to be discord between us. It was felt big time and after prayer, we came together and discussed the situation. He misunderstood me of course, so it was all good in the end, but the beauty of it all was I had an opportunity to express to him what I consider a blessing and to what lengths I would go to help another. I think it shocked him at one point but as I said to him – Jesus said…
Matthew 6:33-34 33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Luke 18:22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
Now will I not pay my bills to help someone else, no I will not do that, as that is not scripture based either, as we are to render unto Caesar what is his, but I will not buy a new dress to give another money for food or a new dress. It is just my nature, and I had to explain that to my husband. I think he understood me better and why I do what I do just in that.
Oh but let me tell you, Sister Alissa Lynne was very upset with her husband during this disagreement, which was in turn an misunderstanding/miscommunication – Thank God!
Oh what a lesson learned for sure for both of us! Praise God for the growth and now I know that we will not have this issue again.
Well this was long today – LOL Oh well! Sorry! LOL
Have a beautiful and blessed day!
Love your sister in Christ,
Sister Alissa Lynne
Praise the Lord; this is day 8 in the program. It was an interesting read, as some of it was not what I believe 100% but yet still good words. It is something how people interpret things differently and it got me to thinking even more. We are all different in our own right which is awesome yet and still, which means that God is going to speak to each of us in different manners.
I have come to learn more in reading the bible, that some scriptures mean different things at different points in my walk with the Lord. It is like the words go deeper into my spirit and grant me a new outlook or understanding of the word. I thank God for that.
I do not come against what others say most times, unless it is clear that the Lord is telling me to do so. I believe that many of us have gifts, yet until we get to the “level” of understanding for that gift, the gift will not come until we are where we can understand them. I am of Pentecostal faith, and though it is preached that you are not saved unless you are filled with the utterance of tongues, I do not believe that 100%. I believe that you are saved when you repent, accept Christ, baptized and then start walking the life of a Christian, in other words start showing that light of Jesus in you. Too many times people say I believe but yet do not act as they are, to me that is not a saved individual that is someone who straddles the fence. We have all seen people who do that, I used to do it myself. It depended on the company I kept at that moment what would come out my mouth. If I was with saved people, I spoke as the saved people did, if I was with my unsaved friends, I spoke as the unsaved did. I played around with it, to me that is not saved. Now has God forgiven me and called me to Him during all of that, sure He has but I had not accepted Him as of that point.
I was blessed to be in my home on March 2, 2006 – calling out to God in frustration and need to have my house ran by Him and only Him. I was praying and all of a sudden started speaking in yet another tongue, I was so thrown but excited. I understood everything I was saying, as if what I was saying was a language only known to God and myself. This is what I believe utterance of tongues means. Should we walk around speaking in tongues all the time when we are witnessing to others, HECKS NO.
I know that for me, and I can only speak for me, I have never spoken in tongues and not know what the conversation is about. The words are going in my mind as the language comes out of my mouth. I believe that if you desire to have this gift, it will be granted to you as this was my desire to have and He blessed me with the gift when I opened myself up to it. We have to truly seek God in our direction of gifts, I would not pass this gift up for the entire world because of my prayer life in the Lord. The release that I feel when I am praying to the Lord in this manner, is beyond anything that I can even express, better than sex any day! Now am I saying that you will not see Jesus and hear well done because you do not speak in tongues, no I am not saying that. As I stated in the beginning, the gift comes when you have an understanding of it, for the Lord will bring you to that understanding of it when it is time for you.
When it was my time, I was open to it without even knowing it. My heart was hurting, my soul was crying out and my spirit was grieving, the Holy Spirit knew that He had to make utterances for me as my words could not go where they needed to go. (Romans 8:26-27)To me that is why He blessed us with the utterance of tongues and where we can grow in Him. I know that all do not believe what I am saying, shoot a lot of Pentecostals do not believe what I am saying but yet this is what He gives me to explain why I speak in utterances of tongues, it is a blessing to me to have. My walk with the Lord has changed drastically when I was blessed with it, and I pray that even though other gifts are more important to others, that this gift is not passed by. If you do not receive it, it might not be meant for you to receive it, but yet again did you even want it in the first place, sometimes that makes the difference.
I know that a lot of people do not believe as I do, they do not always understand my thinking. It used to bother me but yet no longer does it bother me. I used to get so upset when people would “correct” me in my belief trying to tell me that I was still young and need to learn, when I knew that God revealed things to me. I started looking at different faiths and beliefs – I saw them working for others and my aunt told me something that I will never forget. It is the word of God that makes the difference in our lives. He is the word, He is faithful to His word, and He brings forth His word. Praise God.
I think too many times we are so bent on getting people to see our way, well let me say I was for so long, yet the Lord showed me that it is not about us getting others to see our way but we need to see His way.
It took me a long time to not take the aspect of What Would Jesus Do (WWJD) but What Did Jesus Do (WDJD) instead. I have always said that we “think” too much, and this is where the issues come about, we all want to be heard. (I know I do) But that is the flesh part of us, I think if more of us would really go to the Lord for all things and do more of WDJD as that is following His example and less of WWJD as that is trying to figure out what He would have done in a situation, that we would have more harmony and peace in our lives. We all have a walk in our lives to do, I love the story of the woman brought to Jesus because of adultery and how all those that brought her left when Jesus stated that He without sin cast the first stone. I think we as Christians need to do more of that, doing what Jesus did and not so much the other stuff. J
My honesty thought for today is…I would like to have more children. I am 40 years old, with one son and a fabulous husband of one month. We cannot physically have children because I cannot, yet the desire is there. I still from time to time envy women who can get pregnant as I never have been. (My son is adopted)
People say all the time that I will get over it, let the Lord this and let the Lord that, hummmmmm…most times these are people who have children. LOL It is funny how women who went years without children and then be blessed with children, tell me how they can relate. LOL I cannot give birth to children ever, it is not even a possibility for at all. No miracle Sarah birth here. It is funny, sometimes my sisters in Christ who are past the child birth age and never had children tell me that they know what it is like, but they could be a Sarah birth if the Lord willed it. I have no equipment to carry a child so I know that it is never going to happen. It is harder now than ever before because my husband who has no children of his own outside of Jonathan (my son), he will never have that. It was hard for him to deal with in the beginning and I think every now and then it crosses his mind. I think the hard part is as we make love, one of those times could have been “the time”, or one of the future times could be it.
I know that God is keeping me and I am by no ways depressed about it, by no ways deterred by it either. I know that God is keeping me and my mind is just a little sad. I love my son Jonathan whom I adopted at the age of 6 weeks old, he is my son and I love him with my entire heart. I am blessed to be his mother and I am eternally grateful to the Lord for him. Yet there is a desire to have a child growing inside of me that has not left me yet, in time it will as it is a hurt and pain that I have to allow the Lord to mold and shape me into what He wants me to be.
Since I am doing the honesty writing, I have shared a piece of me. It is hard knowing that no child will come from this blessed union, but then the Lord has blessed us to know that we will have a houseful of children to be parents too. Even though that is awesome in its own right, it is still not quite the same as walking around feeling the life of a child inside of me. I am one of those sisters who go into immediate prayer when I hear of women mistreating their children, women having abortions, and women who just act up during a pregnancy in whatever manner that they do. For the Lord is truly blessing them and yet they do not choose to see it at that time as a blessing unto them, life is precious and these mothers should see it as such.
I am blessed that my son’s birth mom was not one of those mothers and placed him up for adoption. It is believed that he was conceived under rape, but her compassion for his life and not her own feelings, carried the pregnancy through to term. She saw his awesome little face and thought she could keep him but yet it was too much for her so she placed him up for adoption.
I admire those mothers who make that selfless decision to place their children up for adoption as they want a better life for their children, so I tell myself that is why I am not able to have children, for the Lord knows what is best and though my mothering cries out for that from time to time, He will send comfort and bless me yet again one day to be a mommy to more children. AMEN!
Praise the Lord, today is Part Seven, well though I may not agree with all that was said about the Holy Spirit, I do agree on one major point – totally surrendering your life to the control of the Holy Spirit is the way to go! AMEN! When we give complete control over to the Holy Spirit and not allow self to take charge, the Lord will move things in our lives according to His will with less friction on our part.
I have learned in my own life that when I stop doing what I want and listen to what God is telling me even when I do not understand it, it all comes together in the end.
I was listening to a song yesterday by Fred Hammond, Steps Are Ordered. As I listened to that song, I had to get out my chair and just praise the Lord. I talked to Him and I praised Him for my steps are ordered. Here are the lyrics for that song…
Chorus
Every step of a righteous man
Is ordered by God
Ordered
Though you may not know his mind
He will reveal it all in time
Just know till then
Your steps are ordered by God
Verse 1
When it feels like the mountains to high
And your tired of the climb
When it feels like my patience is frustrated with time
I depend on the spirit
To gently remind
(Chorus)
Verse 2
When my faith is challenged
And my vision is obscured
When I'm hanging on by a thread
And my footings unsure
I hear in the spirit
One word to help me endure
And it says ordered
Vamp
Ordered, Ordered, Ordered
Before the world was framed
Ordered, Ordered, Ordered
Before the whole world was framed
Ordered, Ordered, Ordered
Through the fire
Through the flood
When life takes you through winding turns
Ordered, Ordered, Ordered
We have to come to understand that God already knows what we are going through, what we are going to choose to do and how we are going to listen to Him. He is just moving so strong in our lives, if we only stop and listen to Him.
Now for today’s honesty and truth….I am so excited today, I am trying to keep it real and reveal something deep within me but I am just excited. Okay, let me think!! LOL I got it…
I question sometimes what I am to do and where I am to go and why I am to do it. I want to do what He says but sometimes I just look at the task and go “Yeah Right”. I have learned to not do it as much as I used to do it, but yet and still sometimes I still struggle with it. WL4J came after a long battle within me and being like Jonah. Yet once I started doing what He wanted me to do, I have had more joy in the Lord. I feel the anointing of God more in my life and He is truly moving in my life.
One thing that He keeps showing me is the blessings that comes from trusting in Him and listening to Him. Yes my husband and I are getting adjusted to each other, but the love of the Lord in each of us is so awesome when we come together on things. Oh how awesome it is to sit and talk about the Lord, to worship and praise the Lord, and pray together all in our home. God is so awesome to us. He keeps blessing our marriage, our relationship with others and just blessing us as He is so good to us.
I want to share with you a testimony that I wrote to my best friends via email as God is blessing here..check this out…
PRAISE THE LORD!! Girl the Lord is truly moving over here! We have a few bills that still needs paid and with Merv not having a job it was just not seeable how things were going to be done. Money coming out the account for all kinds of stuff, we were just leaving it in the hands of God. I mean we are short – little food and not sure how we were going to do. God sent the neighbors over yesterday with some barbeque pig and macaroni salad, I had spaghetti and we shared with our neighbors. As you know they have a 2 week old baby, girl the baby came in yesterday with just a big tee-shirt on him along with a raggedy blanket.
I do not feel good today as I am swollen but was scheduled off anyhow. We were praying last night but the Lord really moved on me during our praying. I just bless the Lord for His is so worthy….okay I am getting to it… THE LORD SENT OVER $300.00 TO US TODAY!!!!! More than what we needed, so we are going to spend some of that to get the neighbors baby some things. Praise the Lord!! Wait there is more…
Merv has an interview tomorrow and they are saying that they will show him around and ask a few questions, the guy at the job fair really liked him and they appear so nice too. His interview is tomorrow at 2 PM, so we know that the Lord is about to bless.
The other day we were sitting around here talking about the Lord and Merv saw a door beside me. He said for me to open the door in the spirit and when I did, he saw windows with sunshine shining in and coming down on ME! I praise the Lord this day and every day for He is worthy to be praised. It is the Lord who deserves all the praise and I am thankful that He is blessing. Girl I have been praising Him all morning! AMEN!
How can we not serve a God like that? God is truly good to us. Keep moving as the Lord directs you! I love to talk about the Lord, if you ever want to talk, just hit me up!
God Bless
Love your sister in Christ,
Sister Alissa Lynne
Praise the Lord – it is step six today! I was pleased to see that this step has been done by me almost every single day! Praise the Lord! I am glad for it and so excited that I am on the same path. It is a confirmation of knowing that the Lord is speaking to me and I am not crazy! I have to admit that I struggle with the spirit of approval a lot in the past.
It all started when I was a child. I wanted the approval of my mom. I felt so far away from everyone else. I wanted to feel her love and I thought that meant she had to approve of what I was doing. Due to my mother’s own insecurities, she turned it into like I was “competing” with her. I never won, I was never good enough, I always did something wrong. It was defeating and continued to break me down.
Along came the two ex-husbands and it just got worse, I was never good enough, I was never doing anything write according to their measuring sticks.
It was not until I came to the Lord and started talking to Him daily, reading His word, living as He called me to do did I come to see that it is His approval that I need to seek. I started to see that people get jealous for no reason, people try to stop what I was doing in Jesus for no reason. Family members kept their distance because of the road that laid before me. I had friends who left me alone. It was at first kind of damaging to my very person because I sunk back into the old ways of wanting to have approval, so I started having people double check what I was doing, not doing what I needed to do without having someone saying that they agreed.
Jesus allowed this for a little while, until one day He said to me – I said do this and you best go ahead and trust me. It hit me, when I take things to others without His direction, I was seeking approval of man and not of God. I was NOT trusting the Lord. I was not following Proverbs 3:5-6 as I said I was going to do. I was not living Matthew 6:32-34 as I said I would, as I put my trust in what others said.
I had started using others lives as a measure for mine and I was failing fast. I was not using the word of God for my life or my direction for the Lord was calling me to come to Him closer and lean more on Him not on anyone else.
It was through prayer and fasting did I come to see that I needed to let it go, let them all go and focus on Him. Sure there are times people are going to think I am nuts, just as they did Noah, Job and Jesus! But you know what, if that is the company I am looking up too, I do not see how I can go wrong! Praise the Lord!
We need to make Jesus not only our Lord, but our role model, our star, our everything, in doing this – we will have eternal life and this is what I want this day.
Now for my releasing part of my writings…my son! Jonathan is my son by adoption. He has taught me that love has no boundaries. I am thankful to the Lord for him, yet I question if what I am doing is right in his life. I thank the Lord for His direction and visions that He has given me about my son for if it was not for those things I might have given up. It is not in my being to do so, but sometimes our children will push us to the point that we think we are doing something wrong or we are messing up with them. I am very protective of him because first I am his mother and I think I go overboard sometimes because of being an abused child. Yet, I am loving and give as much to him that I can. Which might be half the problem, LOL. He has started this streak of lying for the last year and literally we can not believe a word that comes out of his mouth. We have not given up on him at all, the Lord keeps reminding me of the vision of seeing him as a teenager, receiving awards and the feeling that I had while he got the award. He showed my husband Jonathan grown as an adult, hugging me and thanking me, and I did not have the vision so to speak but my husband gave me enough detail that I can see it for myself. We have rough moments and he is only seven years old. He had a very hard time when his father left us as his father did not just leave me but left him too. My son was close to his dad, and still having a hard time with it. We pray much for him but have learned to leave it in the hands of the Lord.
I know that I have the victory in Jesus, it may not be showing the complete victory now but it will. I stand on that and know that the Lord is going to bring us through. My son has to have his own testimony to the Lord too. I have to smile as the Lord has answered my prayers, I asked the Lord to show me every single time my son does something that needs corrected, to bring him to the place he needs to be. Praise the Lord, there is nothing Jonathan does that God does not show us! AMEN!! God will answer our prayers and I am trusting the Lord for it all.
Well it is time to get ready to head on to church. I am blessed and thankful this day and on my way to fellowship in the Lord with my sisters and brothers in Christ.
Have a blessed day in the Lord!
Love you all,
Your sister in Christ,
Sister Alissa Lynne
Praise the Lord – it is day Five in the programs and yet another day of expressing and letting go. It is clear to me that today I need to deal with NOT being alone in my house. I had become accustomed to being alone with my son. I was used to doing what I wanted when I wanted. Oh man is that gone! LOL
Last night after prayer service, I just had this sudden urge to be alone. What I mean is be alone with the Lord and being alone with myself in my own thoughts. I got out the car last night and spent some time downstairs with the kids (my nephew is here this weekend) and then just without saying a word, went upstairs to our room.
I am not sure if anyone even noticed because no one bothered me. This is rare, as no matter where I am, my son or hubby find me and asking me something. I take it as the Lord knowing that I needed this time and gave it to me.
Oh just to be in the bedroom alone without anyone snoring, or taking all the space in the bed. I was able to just relax and read the word, I ended up falling asleep as I was thinking and talking to the Lord. It was so relaxing, and I barely noticed when the hubby came to bed. It was a restful sleep and truly what I needed for me.
I have to get used to having Merv around all the time…LOL I love him and he is an awesome guy but my problem is that I am used to being alone and I am selfish! WOW, what a release that is. I am used to being here by myself and it is not easy, this is my adjustment that is not going to be easy but yet and still I will have the victory for Jesus is leading me and molding me.
The hardest part is when I want to be alone and cannot. I get irritable and everything everyone says works my last nerve. I have a houseful of people most times and that does not bother me, this is what happens when you have a seven year old and your husband is a minister. I can deal with that except when I want to be alone and without anyone around. I prayed last night for the Lord to show me what to do and how to handle it.
The first thing that came to mind was shut my mouth – keep my mouth shut and do not say a word when you know you want to be alone. I need to pray and seek the Lord. Also I shall start exercising the fact that I need to make sure I pray without ceasing especially when I am not in the right mood and walking in the flesh and not the spirit. Walking in the spirit is a full time job itself, I know that God will direct me in this area too.
Okay for the 100% honesty part…I started writing this and here comes my husband. He is still talking to me and I am kind of ignoring him because he sees I am typing. It is something how I will let him be when he is working on something, yet when I am working on something, I am to stop and spend quality time. Now is there anything wrong with him wanting to talk to me, no there is not, but yet and still if I am doing something on the computer, why not ask if what I am busy or not?
I know that to some this is nothing, but growing up my mother was anal about manners and presentation of self, to the extreme of going overboard. Now she was the extreme and if you think that you are not a product of your environment, well think again. I am like her to almost the same extent. I am anal when it comes to presenting the right front for all, does not matter if when you are home the whole things is a farce. I am bad when it comes to using manners. I enforce the not eating too fast, chewing with your mouth shut, not talking with food in your mouth, no dancing at the table, all kinds of things. I have transferred some of that to my son but not to the extent of my mom.
What is wrong with manners, nothing but when you allow yourself to hid behind a mask and not allow the real you to shine forth in all its goodness and not so goodness without being afraid of what others think is where we need to make the difference.
I have come to not be as bad as I used to be and truly opening myself up to being honest with myself and with others. I think sometimes that we hid behind the masks because we do not want to deal with what we are for real. I have come to remove the mask from my life and in doing so being honest with myself and for all others too. I believe when more Christians remove the mask, open our hearts to the Lord and truly exercise James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, along with John 13:34A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another, we will find that we all will live life so much more abundantly.
Now before I go, let me go one just a little bit more about the masks. I think that most of us wear the masks because we are afraid of what others think of us because of the treatment that we have received in being honest. We teach our children this, we tell our sons not to play with dolls because it does not look right, we tell our daughters that girls do not climb trees because she is a girl. We start telling them from day one to conform to the way people are because we do not want their feelings to be hurt but yet we should be teaching them… Romans 12:1-2 1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
We need to share more with each other and we need to stop worrying about what people think and do what is necessary to live the life that God has called us to live. I read something today that a brother in Christ wrote that I want to share with you, it is just a reminder that we all have faults, yet God loves us all still and always will. He can use your experiences to glorify him just as he used these people with their faults too…
There are many reasons why God shouldn't have called you.
But don't worry.... You're in good company.
Moses stuttered.
David's armor didn't fit.
John Mark was rejected by Paul.
Timothy had ulcers.
Hosea's wife was a prostitute.
Amos' only training was in the school of fig-tree pruning.
Jacob was a liar.
David had an affair.
Solomon was too rich.......Jesus was too poor.
Abraham was too old......David was too young.
Peter was afraid of death......Lazarus was dead.
John was self-righteous.
Naomi was a widow.
Paul was a murderer....So was Moses.
Jonah ran from God.
Miriam was a gossip.
Gideon and Thomas both doubted.
Jeremiah was depressed and suicidal.
Elijah was burned out.
John the Baptist was a loudmouth.
Martha was a worry-wart.
Mary was lazy.
Samson had long hair.
Noah got drunk.
Did I mention that Moses had a short
fuse?
So did Peter, Paul--well, lots of folks did.
But God doesn't require a job interview. He doesn't hire and fire like most bosses, because He's more our Dad than our Boss. He doesn't look at financial gain or loss. He's not prejudiced or partial, not judging, grudging, sassy, or brassy, not deaf to our cry, not blind to our need. As much as we try, God's gifts are free. We could do wonderful things for wonderful people and still not be ...Wonderful. Satan says, "You're not worthy." Jesus says, "So what? I AM." Satan looks back and sees our mistakes. God looks back and sees the cross.
He doesn't calculate what you did in '78. It's not even on the record. Sure. There are lots of reasons why God shouldn't have called us. But if we are magically in love with Him, if we hunger for Him more than our next breath, He'll use us in spite of who we are, where we've been, or what we look like. I pray that as Christians, we will step out of our limitations into the illimitable nature of who God is.
Then our passion for God and our passion to communicate Him will make mince-meat of our
limitations!
But he said to me, ``My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is
why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
Written by David of AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS
Well that is all for today, have a blessed and wonderful day!
Speaking the Truth…
I was sitting here waiting for one of my reports to get done running, and thinking about the truth of life and why I have such a need to speak the truth. Yesterday was such an experience for me while doing the WL4J talk show, and coming to the conclusion of that series. Oh how God is truly blessing me with His love and compassion for me. It is just awesome how He does that.
I was thinking how badly I want to do an FM/AM Christian radio talk show. I do not mean for 30 minutes as some of these radio station only allow, but just as the world has talk show stations that are on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, I would love to do one of those too. I thought I could do it on line if need be, but yet I have to work, so I am not able to do so.
I am blessed to be able to do the talk shows on line and it is blessing my very spirit, not sure about others but I pray that it does. I was listening to a few radio shows on my way home, Christian talk shows and it was something to listen to them, there was one that I did not want to end but after his 30 minutes, on came the next one that I wanted to get off the air. LOL
There are so many people out there not speaking the true word of God, not sending the truth but fluff to keep afloat and make money while doing it. It really is a shame that it is that way as there are those that are speaking the truth and getting ignored. The gentlemen of the first show was talking about prayer and not praying repetition prayers and it was so interesting to listen to, then the next guys came on and really needed to listen to the first guys show. They were speaking about not losing your salvation, and though they had some valid points, they failed to mention that you can be what you consider saved and still go to hell.
These guys were speaking on that theory that God is love, Jesus came and saved us – end of story. If you acknowledge Him, that is all you need to do. Well if it was that easy, hummmm then what is the point of hell in the first place. I think too many people think that hell is just for the “really” bad people. NOT EVERYONE IS GOING TO HEAVEN! Not everyone who is doing things in the name of Jesus is going to hear well done my good and faithful servant.
Luke 13:26-27 26Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. 27But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.
Romans 12:1-3 1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 3For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
1 Peter 1:14-16 14As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: 15But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
Galatians 5:16-26 16This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 19Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
I saved Galatians for last because this is one of many scriptures that shows that we are to be where Jesus wants us to be and not within the things and lusts of our bodies. Now, do I think if you mess up that you lose your salvation, no I do not, but I do believe that if you keep in the same sin and never changing, never growing in the Lord, never repenting for the sins that you commit on a daily basis, never striving to live according to the will of God, that you are no longer saved because it is by your fruit that He knows His children.
If you are not possessing the Fruit of the Spirit, then He is not going to know you and He is not going to acknowledge you even if you acknowledge Him, saying you know who Jesus is and living for Jesus is truly two different things.
I used to look at the fact that if I was nice to people, and just gave what I could to them, it was good enough to get into heaven, that was what I was taught. But as I read the word of God, man, God is not playing with us. I get hard on myself sometimes thinking I am not doing enough, that I am not reaching enough people that I am just missing the mark, but then the Lord blesses me with such love in my heart that I know that I am not off the mark for I feel His love. How awesome is that?
God is awesome in all that He does.
Well that is all – I just felt this in me today and added it to the site – so only those that visit the site will see this…LOL It is a perk – extra writings that are no where else! Amen!
Have a blessed day!
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