Because it's October ....

 

This blog has honestly been in the works all month, but I didn't know if He would ever let me type it out. Then on the drive home today He started writing on it again... Stay with me, I will try and stay focused, but if you know me you know there may be some squirrels. I liked pink before 2020, honestly, it was probably one of my favorite colors if you asked me especially on my toes. I haven't really decided how I feel about pink in this new season. I said when all of this happened I never wanted to have that label or to let that label stick on me....because it wasn't from God. That's a blog in itself for another day.....

It's a struggle some days to not let the label stick, especially with the weather change and I'm feeling every joint in my body. Nine times out of ten if you ask me how I am, you will get I'm fine. I'm in the place of speaking it .....and trusting God to catch my feelings up to that place one day. I've learned through this season who really wants to know and who's just asking.  It's not because I am in denial of what I've walked through this year, but it's because I have walked through too much already before this year and seen God walk me through too much to let this season be what sticks. God has done WAY TOO MUCH. If you are new to my blogs, start reading around April ;-)  I've tried to blog the story out as I have processed it through His lens. 

There is something about remembering that the bloodline has been drawn and even though it feels like the enemy is crossing it, he can't cross the bloodline. Ya'll words have POWER........ we are in a season of Open Mouth and our declarations (aka our words) need to be speaking life. I know this, but some days I know my mouth runs faster than my heart. My heart has seen this take root in my life, but ya'll some days stinking feelings just shout louder. Thankfully we have a God who is so good that He lets us keep going and reminds us what way is the best. The morning I got my Onka test results which would determine treatment, God had already told me what the results would be. I had a peace that I couldn't explain, but He also followed that peace with an instruction. I've been taking communion now with my medicine for six months and will continue until He releases me. If you Google the side effects of tamoxifen, well don't. So I needed a point every morning, a moment where I stood my ground in faith knowing the God who healed already was still healing. The verse above got added to my declaration when I realized side effects would come, but He would keep them from prospering (aka taking root). Declaration is vital in this season.....and yes no weapon formed against me shall prosper not even a side effect, it may come at me one way but it has to flee in seven. Press into Him......I know it's not easy. I know we still want the suddenly, but some times......God says no to the suddenly and wants us to walk some "stuff" out. You gotta love when you have that discussion with Him yet again and He takes you to 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (If you don't know that's the verses when Paul is pleading for the thorn to be taken away from him and God basically says no.....and reminds Paul that when he is weak, He is strong). One day my flesh will catch up to my Spirit....but until that day comes I take it hour by hour, and day by day. Hear my heart...Some moments I'm running with Him, some moments find me standing still, and some moments find me flat down needing Him to help me back up again. Thankfully His mercies are new EVERY morning. What do you need to draw the bloodline around and stand on His truths? knowing that "even when you don't see it He's working, even when you don't feel it, He's working.." 

There is a verse in Isaiah that says, see I'm doing a new thing, see it springs up, can you not perceive it? (Can you not see it with eyes that see beyond the natural). For something to spring up, there has to be a seed planted, time for roots to settle, and water applied for growth to happen.....let that sink in. That could preach a sermon right there....but I will leave with I'm sure that maybe a blog for another day. 

 When 2020 ends, will you be able to just say you survived it or that you overcame what was thrown at you? Once you walk through some things, the label survivor gets given to you....but God's been stirring up in my heart a desire to rewrite that label to Overcomer. Think about it like this, the disciples in the boat survived through the storm....yes they made it through to the other side, but were they any different than when they got in the boat? Peter got out on the water and overcame fear among other things knowing that if God said He could do it...He could do it. What has God already said you could do that you haven't embraced yet and grabbed a hold of? We overcome by the blood and the word of our testimony....God when I look back on this year, let it be that I overcame because of you......

The sound vs. Noise

Side note: I started writing this blog at the end of Fall Break..but God wouldn't let me finish it. I know why after this week. Thankful for a release to finish it....

I thought I had already posted this song in this journey of reflections....until I saw it was still sitting in draft form. I was watching a service from this morning and they sang this and God started reminding me of so much from the beginning of the journey. I've been hearing a sound in the Spirit for the last six months (since April). There's a word still coming on, and being pieced together from Ezekiel 37, but on to the blog I'm released to write for now...

2020 has become a year for most of expecting things to happen. It seems like we go from one thing to another as a country and many have faced that same cycle personally. Transparency moment before I go any further, the last couple of weeks have worn me down and out. It's becoming harder and harder to pick myself up from those moments some days and move forward. Binge-watching TV and just sleeping are becoming an escape some nights. If you have an educator in your life, encourage them....we are giving it all we have and it's feeling like not enough some days. Seriously, this is a hard year for any educator regardless of how many years of experience. Only God this weekend though found his way to speak even during sleep....lol 

I truly believe God is laying the foundation for the rest of this year to be what He designed for it to be. Distractions are plentiful, trust me  I know they look differently for everyone, but they are distractions still the same. ...Distractions are all making noise too because the enemy doesn't want the sound reaching the ears of the remnant, aka God's children. 

So many times we say we see the pieces falling into place, but this week God showed me a different perspective on how to look at that. Shift your perspective from seeing it as pieces falling into place to bones coming together. (Ezekiel 37). This past week I saw what initially made me think of pieces falling into place, but I later saw God take it up a level, it was bones coming together, etc. Hear my heart and know that I get that 2020 has been a crazy year, but I truly believe if we will give God some room, He can show us His perspective as we look to close this year out. The enemy knows it which is why there has been a counterfeit sound that has gone forth to distract. Get this in your spirit...the enemy can't create, he can only counterfeit what has already been created. So if God is sending out a sound, the enemy is trying to send one out as well but it's in the form of noise (aka distractions). Last week as I saw God start doing His thing, the enemy came throwing out distractions. Distractions come in a lot of forms and honestly, some may be different depending on your journey, etc. That's a blog in itself for another day. Recognizing what the distractions were didn't lessen them, but it did help me stay focused on what they were...distractions nonetheless and I just had to keep pressing through them. 

This will end up being a second blog, so I'll end this one right now. What are you listening to? Is it a sound or is it noise? (Matthew 11:15 He who has ears, let him hear).  Not everything you give your attention to is a sound that will have a ripple effect, some of it is just noise to keep you distracted and off focus.....but I'll save that for a part two blog later this week. 

He has never lost....

Who are you great mountain.....

I've heard the word Overcomer running in my Spirit since God broke through with something last night. (it's probably got a part 2 coming later this week from 1 John 4:4). This song was new to me until I heard Restoring Hope Worship sing it during this past season....and then I went on a search for it. The line that God would have on replay more than once was "Who are you great mountain, That you should not bow low? Jesus defeated the darkness, He has never lost a battle". 

Are you seeking to overcome something or just survive through it? Ya'll God's downloading a word that will be another blog later when He's done. Think of Peter walking on the water and the other disciples sitting in the boat, they both left with a different view of that storm that they had just walked through. One found what they could do in the middle of what was going on and the others sat wondering just thankful the storm ended. 

This was not the direction I thought the blog with this song was going to head, but God finally broke through last night with a few words....and one was Overcomer. Our viewpoint determines how we fight and I know the last few weeks I've lost sight of that. I've fought one too many battles in the natural only to have God give me one of those looks and be like Child..... Thankful for Fall Break and for finally getting rested enough that I was able to hear the whispers. 

I'm going to keep this one short today because I know a deeper one is coming later. The enemy wants to steal your focus, which may need to be a transparent blog soon because hindsight and some God revelation has shown me oh so much. There is a battle raging and we can't be distracted in realms we can see because the real war needs to be fought in realms we can't see. Stay the course but more than that stay with eyes focused on the only One that can speak to winds and waves and they listen. 

When the flood comes in...

 

This was not on the list of blog posts I had planned to post this week. Ya'll God laughs when we plan, if you haven't figured that out by now ....well you need to. When His plans become our plans, then things start to align as only He can. Anyway on to this word tonight...

There have been a few times when God has spoken this verse to my Spirit and this is one of those I think God may have been trying to get in for a few weeks.  Usually, when God brings up this verse I have to do a Google search cause it's not NIV that I remember it from. This is from NKJV just for reference. 

2020 has been a year on so many levels and honestly, the past few weeks have been overwhelming with a lot of stuff. Stuff that is honestly when I slow down and see it from His perspective, a lot of it is distractions. God brought me to this verse tonight as I started thinking about the to-do list. and the word WHEN jumped out at me. The verse doesn't say if the enemy comes in like a flood, it says when. Ya'll the enemy doesn't have anything new to throw at us.....when I picture a flood, I see overwhelming waters...stay with me now. What has been overwhelming you lately? If it's not God's truth and love....think about it for a minute. 

So when the wave of whatever comes at you and starts to overwhelm you, trust God to raise up a standard of truth. Trust God to bring truth back to your mind, whispers to your soul, and know that He has ordered your steps He's just waiting on you to see it. Take some time this weekend and let Him guide your reflections and thoughts. Ask Him for His perspective.....and watch Him shift your atmosphere when you let Him. 

Cause you make mountains move......

"Cause you make mountains move....you make giants fall..." This has become a song I listen to at least once a day if not more than that. Let's face it when the days are long and when the stress seems to come at you like a flood, music is that place that can refocus us. I don't know if it's just me, but the distractions have been plentiful lately...in fact, that's a blog on it's own coming I'm sure at some point this week. Distractions steal our focus and that in itself should clue us in to where they are coming from. The enemy only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I have had a whisper here and a whisper there over the last couple of weeks because well the distractions have seemed louder than the whispers. The more I press in, it's because there is a word coming and the enemy knows it...hence the distractions, but I digress. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, we have to stir it up some days what we know is on the inside of us. I saw this picture a week or so ago, and it didn't make exact sense but it's starting to come into view. There is a shift that happens in all of our journeys at some point. We have those moments where we are following behind and seeing how He's gone before us on our journey and the light that leads each step. Then we hit a place where we start to see the light from a different view and notice that it's coming from around us and beside us. Broken places, those places we pray against, may very well be the place God uses to shine from within. It's that moment we look up from walking along our journey and see how the journey has shifted and following has turned into a friendship. 

God finishes what He starts, and the same faith He displayed then He plans to continue to displaying now. We get in the way sometimes, kind of like picking up a hose and squeezing it. Water still comes out but not in the way it could if there wasn't anything holding it back. Take time this week to reflect and see what may be holding you back, what is God asking you to let go of so that He can take you to the next He has planned. There are some things that we get free from and the enemy slides the chains back at our feet and if we aren't careful, we can find ourselves picking them back up again. Hear my heart....it's just a distraction, keep moving forward and don't pick up anything that He doesn't hand to you. Let that visual sink in....God's a giver of good gifts and He doesn't put something to where we have to look down to pick it up, He hands them down to where we can look up to receive it. 

There is a season of expectation, I've seen it, I've heard it....and can now see how the enemy has done everything he can to distract from it. Thankful for a reset break and for reflection some this week. Elijah had moments where he sat under the tree and had a borderline pity party, but then he got up and had an encounter with God that propelled Him back to purpose. God's said more than once already this week that's He's whispering......praying you to hear exactly what He's saying to you in this season. 

More blogs to come this week.....