Praising in the Middle....

Devil you lose...apparently you needed reminding of that today. You took a shot, but now you are just making me mad...and this Jesus girl has her war clothes on.

The enemy fights to keep you distracted and a lot of times it may work for awhile. Child of God...your steps are ordained by God. He knew you would be right where you were at when whatever the enemy threw your way came. He knew how you would feel and the fight to not react in the flesh, He knew it even before it happened. Guess what else He knows....your heart, yep that's right. The hardest thing to do when your flesh wants to react is to trust God with the hurt and to fight for you. My flesh has not been my friend for a couple of weeks now. The enemy knows the seed that is on the inside, the intercession that God has called me to do, and the revelation in prayer time that God has spoke...and the enemy is fighting for that seed. (What he doesn't know is that it is taking root....). When God has spoken a promise, given you a word....guard it as it takes root. The enemy will do what he can to try and take it. I'm tired of his messes...and everything he has taken is coming back this year. My flesh wants to react, but my Spirit is ready to act. I'm learning that a hurt in His hand...releases me to pray for His will not my own. As long as I am still feeling my way through, God can't fill me through.

Perspective doesn't mean God changes the situation, but that He changes you as you see it through His eyes. When you can step outside of the natural (flesh, feelings) and see it in the spiritual.....the pieces start to make sense. The feelings may still be there, but God knows the strength on the inside of you can keep moving forward with a look through His view. Peace for me sometimes is knowing how He sees it....and knowing that the power on the inside of me is stronger than the feelings on the inside of me. I have felt God leading me to pray for boldness in 2016. It's been in my prayer journal more than once....and today God reminded me of that. Boldness means stepping even further out of the boat and the comfort zone into the calling God has for your life. Boldness to let Him fan the flame He has started and to walk out the calling He has placed on your life. It doesn't mean it will make sense to others (a lot of the times it won't...) or that the struggle for complacency and comfort won't be there. Boldness means dying to myself and knowing greater things are still to come. Boldness also means trusting that when He says open my mouth...He will take care of the words. (For a person who has always had a mouth issue....this is almost funny to me. I'm learning to be quiet more...but to be quiet because He said to...not because I've put a wall up and want to just hide behind it. Lesson still in progress...) Boldness also means knowing that this Jesus girl is enough in the hands of the Creator who loves those places she considers weaknesses. (For a person who has always had a confidence issue....I'm learning being confident in Him doesn't always mean feeling confident). God ordains my steps, always has and always will. I may take longer going around the mountain than He planned, but I'm thankful He is patient. He's written a story that only He could write thus far in my life, great things have been written, but thank you Lord Greater things are still to come! I'm thankful for kingdom connections, friends that pour in so that you can pour out....friends that are in my life because of God making His promise of Romans 8:28 come to fruition.

I'm not perfect....and I think sometimes I only blog about the other side of the lesson and not always in the middle of it. This is a middle of the lesson blog. I'm not the same person I was this time last year.....my Spirit has been restored and there is a shout on the inside of me that is tired of being told to be quiet. God has been patient and persistent...He is the teacher who never grows tired of re-doing an assignment until a passing grade has been reached. He wouldn't keep pushing you to realize you can do it...if He didn't already know that you could. Today He had to remind me I could push past it. My conversations with God are truly comical some days....

Child of God I don't know what your week holds, but I know Who does. I do know that He already knows the steps that make up the days. The words that make up the hurt and the tears that make up the praise. He knows the moments that will make you smile, the moments that will make you cringe, and even the moments that will make you count to 10. He also knows the people who need that smile, the ones that may need your ear, and the ones who He has given you a word to speak life into. God has already seen the distractions the enemy has planned for the week...but Child..trust Him. He knows how to step over them, to move them, and to even step on them in Jesus name. He didn't say it wouldn't hurt or that you may not even feel pain at times, but He's greater than anything that is thrown your way...The weapons may be formed, but they shall not prosper. The hardest thing to do is to walk forward knowing that in the physical you don't feel like it. God gets the glory Child of God...when you leave it in His hands and let Him work through you as only He can do. The messes make sense in the hands of the One who already knows the message.