Blog Award

 

Thanks to Rachelle from PiNK for giving me this award. This is a great way to know other bloggers!

How It Works:

- Thank the person who gave you the award by linking back to them in your post.

-Tell us 7 things about yourself.

-Award 15-16 recently discovered bloggers (or however many you choose)

-Contact those bloggers and let them in on the exciting news!

1. I'm an Independent Author, working on publishing my 2nd book.

2. I'm recently engaged to my best friend of 11 years. 

3. I love dogs and cats! I've always owned at least 2 of EACH for most of my life. One day I'd love to own a few birds!!

4.I'm a firm believer that it's not the quantity of friends but the quality of friends that matters.

5. I love big purses/earrings, pink lipstick, sparkly nail polish, gaudy rings, and flip flops!

6. I'm always up for a road trip out into the country! There's nothing like wide open spaces, good music, laughs and conversation!

7. Jesus is my King

Blogs I Award: 

For His Glory

Life Is A Song

Arminian Today

Passion For Paraguay

Embrace

 "Yes I know, if Your eye is on the sparrow then Your heart is on me"

Power in His Name

Do you feel like you're missing something? When you go into your prayer closet, in the quiet place you've set aside to worship God, or just in your daily life, do you lack power? Do you feel empty? If you want to experience the manifested power of God in your prayer time, try learning His names. There is power in telling God who He is. When you begin your worship time, repent of everything you can think of, forgive those who have hurt you (verbally), then start thanking God for His goodness and mercy in your life, after that begin to tell the Lord who He is, by name.

If you still can't seem to get into His manifested presence ask the Holy Spirit to lead you. Sometimes, for whatever reason I have a hard time "getting in", on those days I whisper a little prayer, "Holy Spirit lead me into my Fathers presence." And He always does! If we get into a routine way of entering in, God may change it up a little bit, to keep us refreshed. One of the keys to experiencing His presence is silence, more listening less speaking. We can't fool God with our many words, He sees us just the way we really are. That shouldn't be scary, but freeing. It releases us to be listeners, because we know that God already knows the intimate details of our heart and situations we face. I believe God wants honesty of heart. When we pray lets search our hearts and speak from a sincere place. Honesty of heart opens the door for His presence as well.

Many times we rush, and pray these very light quick prayers, because we want something from God, not because we want to spend time with Him. Don't get me wrong I whisper short little prayers all day, that's awesome, but we cannot forget to set time aside to dig deeper. Sometimes we have to turn the radio off when we're driving, shut off the television, or get off the computer and go to our prayer closet and press in. We are changed in His presence.

Also make sure you are baptized in the Holy Spirit. Praying in tongues (praying in the Spirit) is an amazing tool. Often time in prayer you may feel led to start praying in the Holy Spirit, which will lead you into praying for someone or something. It’s important to follow the Holy Spirits lead, and allow Him to guide our personal prayer and worship time. (We may be the only ones who will ever pray for a certain person or situation. That’s a huge responsibility. Our prayers release God to move.)

There is much I could say on experiencing God’s presence in our personal time, but I want to get back to the main focus of this blog, which is God’s name.

Remember take it slow, be a listener and follow the little nudges of the Holy Spirit. He will meet you where you are. He wants you to enter in, more than you want to.

Feel free to contact me, if you have any questions or want to talk more about this.

God bless you and may you experience the manifested presence of God.



Names of God:

Jehovah-Shammah
- The Lord Is There

El Shaddi
- God All Sufficient

Jehovah Sabaoth
- The Lord of Hosts

Jehovah Jireh
- The Lord Will Provide

Jehovah Tsidkenu
- The Lord Our Righteousness

El Elyon
- Most High

Jehovah- Shalom
- The Lord Our Peace

Yeshua
- Savior

Jehovah-Rohi
- The Lord Our Shepherd

Jehovah Elohim
- Lord God

Jehovah-M'Kaddesh
- The Lord Who Sanctifies

Adonai
- Master

Jehovah-Rophe
- The Lord Who Heals

Yeshua Hamashia
- Jesus the Messiah

Jehovah-Nissi
- The Lord Our Banner

Fresh Cucumber & Bean Salad

This is one of my favorite fresh salads for this summer. It’s really easy to make too! 

-1 large cucumber (sliced anyway you want)

-1 can of Lima beans (butter beans) Drained.

-1 small can of black olives. Drained.

-¼ freshly chopped onion

-1 cup Garbanzo beans (chickpeas) Drained.

-Newman’s Own Olive Oil and Vinegar Dressing (add to liking)

-Stir. Refrigerate for about an hour. Serve cold. 

Of course everything is optional. You can add or take out whatever you wish.

 It’s really good!!

NOTE: If you want the salad to last longer than one day, it's best not to add dressing to the whole batch, but to personal servings.

Rest in Trust

Changing seasons is always hard. More so, when we don’t have a choice, and EVEN more when we feel a season has been stolen, and ripped right from our hands, by someone else.  I guess that’s sort of the season I’ve been living in the past few years. It’s been hard to find freedom and total healing for my heart. So many questions like, “Why God?” or “What was the point of all that?” Tons of tears, and lots of unanswered questions later, I had to find my healing in trust. I had to ask myself, “Do I really believe my steps are ordered by the Lord?” If I truly believe that, then it was all meant to be - for the greater good. 

If you’ve gone through something you don’t have the answers to, something that’s left a rip in your heart. Ask yourself, “Who orders my steps?”  If the Lord is your God, then He orders them, and everything will work out for good. 

Rest in trust! 

The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. – Psalm 37:23 NIV

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. – Romans 8:28 NIV

I Speak to the Mountain

Love in action is wisdom

"Real wisdom, God's wisdom begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.” - James 3:17-18 The Message

I love this verse ! I really believe this is the season much of the church is living in. We are learning to love our neighbor's as ourselves, and allowing Jesus to teach us a better way.  Loving one another has always been important, but somewhere along the journey of “evolving” as a church we’ve become more self-focused. We care more about getting blessed and less about being a blessing. It’s left much of the church with an entitled attitude, saying “What can I get?” instead of, “What can I give?”  This mentality hinders unity and stops us from forming the type of community God has intended for the church.  

As Christians, the church is our family, and like family we have a tendency to treat strangers better than them. We save our sweetest, most respectful face for those we barely know, all the while being careless, harsh and unforgiving to those we have to live life with daily. 

I believe God is challenging us to rise up higher in this season. Maybe a few seasons ago He’d let us slide by with some things, but in this season I think “Love”, true love, is coming to the forefront. I mean, everywhere we turn, the secular world has the word “Love” slapped on everything from bracelets, t-shirts, backpacks. It’s all about, “Love”.  They throw that word around more than ever, and yet people feel less loved, less appreciated, less accepted than ever before.  Maybe it’s because what they are calling “Love” is not love at all. Maybe the deep void for love, has them using the word love to try and fill the hole, without understanding what love is in action.  

There is no better time than now for the church to rise up with REAL, GENUINE, PASSIONATE love. It’s like fishing in a pond of hungry fish. We know we have what they want, we just have to throw the line out and be accessible. 

I also believe God is challenging us to rise higher in this season for another reason, and that’s so we will be recognized as His. The Bible says in John 13:34-35 The Message, “Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other."  When we love each other, when we put unity first, when we make the effort to protect the hearts of our church family, we are marking ourselves as His.  That’s another reason why I love James 13:17-18 The Message, because it shows us a small glimpse of what love in action is, in relation to our church family.  

“Real wisdom, God's wisdom begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.”

We can make a small list to keep in our hearts just from this verse alone: 

-          -Holy life

-         - Getting along with others

-          -Being gentle and reasonable

-          -Overflowing with mercy and blessings

-          -Not hot one day and cold the next

-          -Not two-faced

-          -Treating each other with dignity and honor 

Father God, make us more like you. Your word says that you are the vine and we are the branches and IF we remain in You, that we will bare good fruit. Continue to prune us, and mold us into everything You want us to be, for Your glory. We are willing to be changed. Purify our hearts and cleanse us from deep within that we’d shine with Your light. Build a hunger and passion in our hearts for unity. Teach us Your ways, that our church would thrive the way You desire. In Jesus Name. Amen

Painting Pictures Of Egypt

This song is beautiful. I think we've all felt this way at one point or another. Seasons come and go, but we have to remember God is always moving us forward. "Painting pictures of Egypt" is easy because we forget everything it lacked. Keep looking ahead and KNOW that ALL things work together for good. Your past holds purpose, but your purpose is not stuck in the past. That's so important to remember!

When God takes us to the next level, and begins to show us what He wants us to do, it can be really tempting to pack up and head back to Egypt, the land of "comfortable", but when we get back to Egypt, we realize we don't fit. We have no choice but to move forward, or wonder around the desert.

Anyways hope the song ministers to everyone who listens. May God continue to stir your heart forward in all the great things He has planned.

Your destiny is AHEAD not BEHIND. :) :)

Working on my 2nd book

I'm trying to get organized so I can finish my second book by the end of July. When I say "finish", I mean all the writing. I'll still have to edit, and all that fun stuff. It'll be a huge challenge to finish by July, but I already know what I want to say, and share in this book. The key is FOCUS. Pulling all the inspiration and mumbo-jumbo in my head out is the first step. Then organizing it into a understandable, readable, and enjoyable format of some sort, comes next. This is already  proving a bit challenging. IT ALL MAKES SENSE IN MY HEAD! ha-ha. Luckily, I'm already about 40-60 pages in! 

I must say I'm super excited to be working on a new project. It's refreshing to say the least. This book is completely different than my first book. Everything from the audience I'm addressing, personality, style, layout...everything! I'm pumped! My first book has more of a devotional layout. Each article is short, and to the point. I love that! My second book however, has chapters, ten to be exact. It's also more focused on one particular topic, whereas the first book is very miscellaneous. Each are special in their own way, but after being so consumed with one project for over a year, I'm thrilled to be doing something new!

I can't wait to share it with you!!!!!!!!!!!!