The Season Of Crickets & The Value of The “One”

From Jesus With LoveLeave a comment

One audience

Yes that’s a cricket next to him on that seat lol. Oh how accurate is this image. Indeed this is a lesson the Lord has definitely taught me this year and last year. To obey him when no one even show up, to be diligent and faithful despite the crickets. Testing my heart for my motives, and not being moved by the numbers…..well because in fact many a times there were no numbers lol. It became so bad that a good friend of mine changed her ring tone to a “crickets chirp” to poke fun of the interesting season Jesus had  me in lol. Its definitely funny now and how I am so grateful for the lesson he taught me in that but, it was painful them. Many times feeling rejected, not valued, even not worthy and of course how the enemy of my soul would whisper suggestions of giving up, doubt, insecurities and even fears to stop me from pursuing what God told me to do. How easy is it for us to trust, followers, likes, people opinions or filled seats with our worth….Jesus didn’t so neither should we.

John 2:24
But Jesus did not trust them because He knew all men.  He did not need anyone to tell Him about man. He knew what was in man.

 

You see earlier last year the Lord told me to began a fellowship at my apartment and I invited quite a few people but got only about two responses. So as the time got closer I decided to cancel it to my surprise many text stating they were planning and immediately the Holy spirit  said “when two or three are gathered in my name I am in the midst”. I felt so convicted I had canceled because the majority wasn’t coming but discounted the two that where and forgetting they were just enough for Jesus that’s all he needs! (hand slap to the forehead), I asked the Lord to forgive me and told him if no one showed up would still do it because if all else fails him and all the heavenly host will be there. So attempted again the following week. This time all I got was “crickets”  no one showed up. To be honest I was devastated it was such a vulnerable season in my life and I was feeling so insecure. I remember continuing with the fellowship just me and Jesus,  my heart was heavy in worship the Lord spoke again and said ” I want to know if you will be faithful are you doing this for me or for them?” I broke down crying telling the Lord its all about him and continued with the fellowship weekly
Lesson Learned Faithfulness

Luke 16:10
If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.

Then the Lord spoke to me again telling me to do a youtube channel to teach all that he is teaching me . I fought with this idea first thinking “who me” but what do I have to teach, I mean who am I Jesus…..of course that’s the best position to be in because in our weakness his strengths pour through us! So I began the youtube channel this year thinking , who is really going to watch this. I would post on fb tag family and friends in hopes they would share or support all I got was “crickets”. Of course there were times where I would get only a few views and I found myself fighting the feeling of discouragement but told myself this is Gods channel not mine so I have to be obedient and continued. As subscribers started to come I found myself continuing to focus on the numbers and comparing myself with other channels. Which can be so dangerous because you lose sight of Jesus and began to look at others. So about 4 months ago my youtube account became disabled I immediately thought it was he enemy attacking the channel but during prayer the Lord said it was him because of my pride. I was like ouch! Wow, so humbly asked for forgiveness and the channel is still disabled however the interesting thing is its grown to over 100 subscribers in these few months and now have over 650 with no new videos. The Lord reminded me that’s its all his work on not mine, “Its not about you Nana” can I say humbling.
Lessoned Learned Humility & Obedience

Then the Lord spoke to me again to began a praying meeting at my job. I was so excited me and some friends go together blessed the room and began to advertise by sending out emails and word of mouth. Initially one or two would come then some weeks when no one would show up “crickets”. There were weeks where I didn’t want to go or I would show up late thinking no one is going to come anyway. Once again I fighting the feeling of discouragement and the Lord reminded me to be faithful and of course He and the heavenly host were there lol. So I would go in the room and pray by myself soon it started it growing and a consistent number of ppl would come and upon leaving the job its still going! Wow,  again I was reminded its Not about me lol and of course the-
Lessoned Learned Is Perseverance

Then finally the Lord spoke to me to began writing these blogs. Honestly I used to hate writing so looking back on these blogs and seeing Gods fingerprints all on this amazes me. However, I remember me and my friend started blogging at the same time. We both knew God spoke to us about it but no one was reading these blogs lol. I would have one viewer maybe 1 follower in 3 months. We would laugh and look at each other and say “crickets” lol but the Lord kept reminded us just write be obedient to write a blog a week. She said her son told her “write they will come” I love that because that’s what faith is. Hoping for what you don’t see putting our faith in Gods word spoken to us and not to give up. So we have continued to write and I am amazed at what God has done!
Lessoned Learned Is Diligence

Most recently the Lord spoke to me to began a bible study over the phone after losing my job. Of course began to have the same rebuttals, wait, whaaa, Lord me, Jesus is this you or just my mind lol but he confirmed. For about a week had to fight off insecurities again because this is opening myself to people I don’t know and plus who would call in LOL There I go again limiting God. So I began the hourly conference line and behold would have 7 to9 callers each day from different part of the country calling in desiring to know God. I was flabbergasted , there was a day when I was 15 minutes into the call and no one called in. I was tempted to just hang up but the Holy Spirit reminded me again of all the times Gods faithfulness even when no one showed up lol. So I told myself you made a commitment with God to do for an hour so will leave it on for an hour, can I tell you that day was the day of the most callers and even a new caller! lol There are times where only one caller has called and the Lord has reminded me that he can care less of the numbers its jus to touch one. So me, that person and Jesus with all the heavenly host have bible study! lol
Lessoned Learned is Trust & Gods Strength

 

Matthew 18:12 “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?

 

Now he has spoken to my heart to turn the personal fellowship and extend it by leading a coed a small group for the  young adults ministry in our church and the Nana of old would be so insecure, frightened, doubtful and concerned with people not showing up. However, because of these past lessons I now know:

  • To be obedient
  • Trust God more
  • Its not about me, its all by his strength
  • To do everything  I do unto the Lord
  • To continue to be faithful
  • Its not about the numbers, one person is so invaluable
  • Its not about what people say about it
  • It is indeed Gods work that he does through me

 

How many times do we allow followers, likes, peoples opinions to be the measure of the worth, validation our work or even Gods call upon our lives? Trust God and be obedient to  all that  he ask you to do because its all about that ONE person, one blog post, one video, one bible study meeting, one prayer meeting that God will use to touch many!

-From Jesus with Love

Love Your Neighbor As Yourself

From Jesus With LoveLeave a comment

man_helping_woman_neighbor

” Love your neighbor as yourself” this phrase has been ringing through my mind by the Holy Spirit during prayer and evermore so his season. The Lord has been really teaching me  and challenging me on brother love. If anyone were to ask you do you love Jesus? Most of us would say “yes of course I love God no doubt about it” but, if you love God do you love people, do you love those he has placed right next to you. Do you love your neighbor as yourself? That is one of the many challenges the Lord has brought to my attention as I would say many times through out the day in my heart, during worship and prayer Jesus I love you and he immediately spoke to me and said “then feed my sheep”. At first I was a little surprised when he speaks so clear and directly hence the blog, youtube channel and the bible study he has me now leading. Then the second challenge which was a few weeks ago as I said again to my beloved bridegroom (sighing affectionately) “Jesus I love you”  and he said “if you love me then love your neighbor as yourself”. Again I was like well, okay…okay (check, dang Holy Spirit) as the Holy spirit reminded how I strongly desired to do mission work, to travel and tell people about Jesus but, have I even gotten an opportunity to know my own neighbors, talk to them share Christ with them?  Lets be honest how many of us  proclaim to love Jesus but don’t really like people lol So may this blog challenge you today especially this holiday to love your neighbor as yourself.

Matthew 22:34-40
Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

So the Lord put it on my heart to knock on each of my neighbors doors and tell them that Jesus loves them and if they needed prayer for anything. The funny thing is for a girl that witnesses all the time to strangers this was terrifying lol I can talk to people I might not see again but to speak to my neighbors on all four floors in apartment complex I just couldn’t muster the courage, I know sad. I asked my brothers in Christ to go with me but they didn’t seem down (sidenote don’t ever look for others to go with you when God is asking you to be obedient to him. Listen and obey). So you can guess I didn’t listen and of course the Lord chastised me in prayer that week and had to repent for disobedience as he gave me the rhema

“Give an example of blind generous obedience or you will scandalized those I have called you to be an example of”

I was called to be an example of obedience and brotherly love to my brothers in Christ. As believers we are all called to be example of Christ in all that we do, you never know who is watching or better yet who the Lord wants to impact by your willingness to obey and perform generous acts of kindness. So as I came before the Lord he gave me another idea this week to get gifts for each of my neighbors and present it to them for Christmas. Which I will be doing today! So what does that mean to love your neighbor as yourself. It means too treat people like you would yourself, to talk to them as you would talk to yourself, to clean after them as you would yourself, to help them as you would help yourself, to love them as you love yourself. Despite the way they treat you, talk to you, approach you, react towards you, say to you, intentions towards you, unbeliever or not or  You just love people and allow God to do the rest. I love this scripture because you cant say you know God and not love! haha

So below are some ideas and most I have done btw 🙂 the Lord gave me to be love our neighbors:

  • Take out your neighbors trash-especially if you live in apartment complex you see your neighbors trash outside their door, don’t ask just take it out for them 🙂
  • Pay for someone’s meal  who is behind you or in front of you in line or a drive thru, or a restaurant
  • Buy plenty of holiday cards, write personal encouraging notes in them ( I call them love note and hand it to random people)
  • Put loves notes on peoples windshield
  • Pray for someone whiles your Christmas shopping . People are in desperate need of encouragement, hope and love this holidays that is the cheapest and most rewarding thing to do!
  • Give your neighbors gift for Christmas could be cards, candy canes, cookies etc
  • Call someone you haven’t talked to in a while let them know they were on your mind and how you could pray for them…that just came to me lol I love it and will do it on Christmas!!
  • When grocery shopping bless someone with a prayer
  • Give generously to those in need homeless and without food
  • Tip nice for the waiters this holiday if you go out to eat then pray with them!

 

1 John 4;38
The person who doesn’t love does not know God, because God is love.

love-your-neighbor

 

Wow powerful scripture, powerful truth. So who is it that your not loving or liking so much this holiday and is that showing a reflection of Christ love in you or what’s in your heart? Furthermore, how do you see others all around you do you see them as your neighbor or a stranger? If you do simply ask the Lord to soften your heart and to have more compassion for other. Also ask him how you can love your neighbor this Christmas so you can be his hands and feet to someone who is in need of a touch of love from Jesus!

Merry Christmas and amidst all the family gathers, celebrations and festivities don’t forget to spend alone time with the one were celebrating Jesus!

 

You Were Created To Dance In The Fire

From Jesus With Love1 Comment

a1d7f05fa6ee1607ef54ab815ca4a6aa

“You were created to dance in the fire” that’s what the Lord spoke to me in my alone time this past week. He showed me a beautiful picture of me in a furnace on fire dancing around not burned, moving freely, swirling, and twirling around unmoved by the heat, the flames that consumed me because he was right there with me. Wow, I was blown away by impression form the Lord and sidenote: I love the image for this post because embodies almost what I  saw thank you Holy Spirit lol (I always ask him to help me pick out the photos he is the best!)

 So in the last blog I let you all in on the fact of the fiery trials that were going on with cars breaking down back to back, financial strains and jobs being lost left and right. Jesus was teaching me how to have a heart of thankfulness amidst my trials and suffering. Furthermore, he wanted to teach me how to dance through them by holding his hands and keeping my gaze on him only as he takes the lead in this wonderful dance. Not only to endure through them but to count it all joy knowing that our faith will be rewarded.  As a believer you can experience fire from two different places the fire of the Lord and Fiery arrows of the enemy. The word of God states the Lord is a consuming fire (Hebrew 12:29) wow, that’s the God that we serve. For unbeliever that should leave them shaken for his consuming fire comes upon the unrighteous as a consuming wrath. However, for a believer He consumes us with his love, his glory, his anointing, his power and how is it possible were able to contain it all in our weak vessels of clay called bodies its only by abiding in him. By walking with so when fiery trials come so he can teach us how to dance when the fire of God falls on us and when the enemy releases his fiery arrows at us as well! lol

There are three scriptures that came to my mind. The first was Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego this was a perfect example of what it looked like to dance in the fire with Jesus because these guys were literally in a fire. I can imagine what that day was like they all were facing what looked like death because they were uncompromising serving the one and only true God. If they wouldn’t bow to the statue of the King they would be thrown in the fire. How many times have you been in a situation where you had to make the right decision that would cost you, maybe even cost you your life? Did you have faith to trust God in that moment were you full of fear, anxiety, worry and doubt? I love their response to the king as they faced death with fire they said:

Daniel 3:16-18
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us[c] from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

Wow, that response took a great level of faith. They knew that God would defend them and deliver them. I love the fact that they said even if he doesn’t we will not lose our faith, lose our hope, we will not cower. Amazing! May we ask for that grace to have that response  when the Lord will doesn’t look like our will (They danced, I would say boogied in the fire! lol)

The second scripture the Lord brought to my mind was:

1 Peter 4:12-13

Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. 13 Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.

This scripture talks about the sufferings, trials we go through as believers sometimes our trials aren’t based on a decision that we made or any open doors but these are our crosses to bare, our sufferings that we can offer to the Lord. They allow us to grow in virtue. Have you ever found yourself in a situation that seems overwhelming, burdensome or even painful and you immediately go into thinking its the enemy. There he goes that sly little devil and you start praying, binding, rebuking and the Lord says “stop its me. I am allowing this for my glory, for you to grow in your faith, and for you to trust me”. Lol Those are the times you have to cling to him and his promises all that the more.  Will you trust him when your rent cant be paid, when people speaking against you, when you have no way around, when you have nothing to eat, when they say you cant have a child, when the Dr. gives you a bad health report, when you have no money for the holidays, will you dance in the fire with him?

James 1:2-4
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

 

The third scripture was:

Ephesians 6:16
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

As a believer sometimes we forget we are in an on going spiritual battle that is very real. Ether you are a soldier in the army or your being help captive there is no middle ground in this fight. When you come to know Jesus Christ you are now a captive that has been set free and the enemy knows that very well. He will try to do whatever he can to make you feel defeated, discouraged, and ultimately held captive by him again. We know our adversary Satan and his demons are very real. They will stop and don’t stop at nothing to attempt to make our lives miserable on this earth. The Lord tells us not to be ignorant of the schemes and wiles of the devil for he is very cunning (2 Corinthians 2:11). With fiery arrows they shoot with anger, division, lies, joyously, condemnation, doubt, fear, death just to name a few. So you can find your self in a fiery situation that was caused by the enemy of our soul to lose hope, to lose trust and ultimately lose faith in the Lord.  Job was a perfect example of a righteous man who went through a fiery trial immediately all of his friends and everyone around starting believing he had to have done something bad for all these things to happen to him. He had to have sinned however, the Lord came to his defense even before the trial began as he spoke to Satan of how righteousness his servant was and offered him to Satan to be tested (Job 1:8) Say whaaaaa, yes God offered Jobs name to be tested. Makes you wonder when you go through fiery trials has God offered your name to be tested. Can He say “look at my son/daughter they are righteous and love me so much that no arrow of yours will stop them from trusting, believing or having faith in me”? You see even in the enemies fire that’s when we dance all that the more, we move with grace, compassion, understanding, longsuffering and patience. As we cling too, hold on too the one we love the most Jesus! Going completely unscathed, no burns, or singes because he is right in the fire with us. Fighting our battle, as he leads my feet in this dance of fire to trample on the enemy!

 Job 42:10
After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before.

God restored Job completely and multiplied even all that he had before. Truly our God waste no trials, no suffering, no inconvenience, no hardship or heartache and when we trust him he restores all that was lost. So will you grab the hand of Jesus and allow him to lead you through the difficult times in your life. Will you stay in a heart of thanksgiving and praise so you become so overcome with his joy that your mourning turns into dancing. That all though your situation hasn’t changed because your gaze is fixed on him you began to dance in the fire with him!  Will you trust him?……Now DANCE!

 

 

Grace of Thankfulness

From Jesus With LoveLeave a comment

dolorosa5d.jpg

You know the Lord speaks in so many different ways and sometimes by numbers. I know many people have seen 111, 333, 444, 555 etc and the Holy Spirit has actually taught me what some of the meanings are when he shows his children those numbers. Numbers have a biblical meaning and shown three times consecutively becomes a love letter from the Lord to you. The number  3 is the Godhead (the Triune) so when you see 333, the Lord is reminding that God the Father, Jesus the son and the Holy Spirit are with you. Beautiful reminder he is with you. The number 4 is Gods creative works, so seeing 444 the Lord is reminding me to “work” . To be diligent or obedient if he has given me a project to do or a task. Now the number 5 is of Grace, redemption……good ole 555, to be honest I cringe when I see this, now I have learned to laugh a little, but nervous and pray lol. When I see 555 the Lord is telling me a suffering is coming, a Simons cross, a trial is coming. Since 5 is his grace  this scripture comes to mind:

2 Corinthians 12:9
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

I remember first coming to the Lord one of my many passionate prayers have been that I would live for him, I would be willing to be rejected for him, and I would be willing to suffer for him. Oh, how he has kept me to my word lol As I began to read Gods words during difficult times I realized in his eyes we are blessed to suffer for his name. As we have our own crosses he allows suffering which is a trial, inconvenience a “Simons cross” which makes it more difficult because we are carrying an additional crosses for someone, something or a situation. Simon was the man that helped our Savior and Messiah carry his cross when Jesus couldn’t carry it anymore. This man thought he didn’t commit the crime why should he help carrying this so called “dead mans cross” not realizing the very cross he carried, carried his sins and that “dead man” was the savior of the world. If Simon would’ve known he would’ve responded with such excitement and with so much (Thankfulness)

Mark 15:21
A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.

Many believers are going through trying ties right now because we are carrying crosses for the world and our nation for God mercy and his will to be done. So fast forward I began to see 555 often about two weeks ago and the first thought was oh oh, Lord a suffering/ trial is coming lol Usually, when I see that it affects just me but this time this trial affected my whole family. The Lord had spoken through this ministry I follow and told us Holy Trials where coming and the way we can overcome is having a grace of thankfulness

My Cross:

  • My sister lost her job the same week I lost mine
  • Then last week my brother in Law and my brother lost their jobs on the same day
  • Last week my sister car broke down and now we have only one two cars in the house
  • So no I am stuck waking up in the morning giving people rides @ 5am and dropping off the kids

This all happened in one month and has been very difficult for my family at the same time we have been through worse lol. So finally my brother in law got a job but needed a ride back and forth. I thought about it and told him I could help, so I committed to taking him to work 5am, dropping the kids off at school, picking him up then picking hem up from daycare. So this week I found myself dreading getting up 5 am and not having anytime to do any projects, being just tired I began to complain to the Lord. He spoke to me “stop complaining I am preparing you for marriage” . I was like whaaaaa Jesus, haha okay I wasn’t seeing things from his perspective or having his heart to sacrifice.  This was teaching me to be a good steward of my time and giving me first hand experience what it would be like having a husband, children a family and still making time to spend with the Lord and work on all the projects he has given me. (Thankful)

Grace of Thankfulness

So during this trial the Lord kept reminding of that message of how we should be grateful and thankful in every trial. Its allows us to grow in patient, longsuffering, and most importantly trusting him. I got to encourage my family not to look at our circumstances but look to Jesus. Through this my sisters decided to do a family prayer line every week, which we did last Thursday and it was awesome. In my heart I was overjoyed in awe seeing my sisters draw closer to the Lord like never before (Thankful). Then this Monday we had a night of praise and worship at my moms house. My Brother in law came as well, everyone was so down and stressed with the loss of jobs and financial strain but the Lord reminded me again praise and worship me for what I am doing. So initially everyone was seated just a heaviness in the room but by the end of the night even my brother in law was up clapping his hands dancing and praising God. We all left that night so full of joy and thankful for all that we had! (Thankful) There is truly power in having a heart of praise and thanksgiving despite what your going through because we know God is working it all out!

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

So we all don’t have jobs yet, nor is my sister car fixed but I know that God is with us now more than ever. I will worship God for who he is, what he has done, and what he is doing because I know he is transforming my family, transforming our hearts to transform our lives. He is so faithful!!! So what cross does God have you carrying? Know that he is suffering with you and that cross,  those trials, and inconveniences are baring much fruit for his kingdom and causing you to grow in virtue as well. When it seems unbearable ask him for the grace of thankfulness. For that is the more reason you should get some worship music and praise God even all that the more because He is Good and is working it out!!

God bless you!