James 1:17
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
I love that Jesus is so full of surprises and he loves to give us gifts we don’t expect. He loves to see the joy and delight on our faces when wonderful things are given to us unexpected! I turned 34 years old about 3 weeks ago, cant believe that really, I am almost half way to 40 lol What a blessing that is though, and this has been a year of refinement, crushing, breaking and pressing. I have also had a lot of alone time with the Lord as he teaches me to be faithful with the small things without seeing any fruit. So I was so surprised when I got a message from a young lady off facebook who mentioned she had seen some of my fb live videos which had really blessed her. That she wanted to invite me to speak at their churches youth conference. I was in shock, thinking me really and then I became nervous really quickly lol. Most would say Nana, you nervous why you speak all the time. However, I had never really preached before and more so in front of a church so I was. As the weeks went by I had another commitment to a prison ministry and I wasnt sure of the date of this event. I knew my birthday was coming up but I had no plans, wanted to be low key and really not do anything. So two weeks until my birthday she tells me its on November 10th which is the day of my birthday! I had to laugh because I just knew it was Jesus saying “Surprise” Happy Birthday this is one of the many things I have been preparing you for.
So for the few days leading up to my first time preaching I sat at the Lords feet. Let me be honest I sprawled out and cried at his feet saying Lord help me please, I have no idea what to say or how to preach” lol. So many insecurities and fears just popping up but, the Lord gave me the sweetest rhema the morning of my birthday and it simply stated ” Don’t worry about your misery I will strengthen you with my Graces” at that moment realized its never really about me and my lack. In fact the reason I lack allows the Lord graces to flow through me more. So I preached my first message on my birthday which was about letting the youth know their identity and raising them up to be prepared as soldiers in the Lords End Times Army! The Holy Spirit had even given me a word the day before that there was spirit of suicide trying to oppress many of the youth in that church. So as I declared these things many people stood up surprised to me to receive prayer of deliverance. I was in awe of the Lord and so humbled that he would use me in that way.
Thank you Jesus for the wonderful Birthday gift!
In addition, a few weeks prior to that the Lord had began teaching me about the saints and our Blessed Mother Mary. Now growing up a protestant this was so far from me and I had many reservations, ignorant and judgmental thoughts against this way of prayer my whole life. However, as the Lord was leading me to grow in the fullness of my faith I became open to what the Holy Spirit was leading me to do. (this topic can be another blog withing itself lol but you can find my videos on youtube) I made post about this on facebook in my excitement and got so much backlash from peers who had been raised to think this was completely wrong but I still stuck to my conviction. I began to share with my peers the power of her intercession. Also my very real experiences and visitation I had. So that night, the church gave all the speakers a gifts bag a a consolation for us coming to speak. Which was such another delight because I wasnt expecting anything I then looked inside my bag and in it was a beautiful white rosary. This was a holy spirit filled, charismatic non denominational church so I was in awe again and immediately I knew it was a gift from our Blessed Mother! You see I had lost my rosary several weeks prior and from hence forth was using my fingers to pray. My Father had a rosary he wanted to give me but I hadn’t received it yet. So there I looked at it as I knew in my heart the Blessed Mother was also saying ” Surprise, Happy Birthday”! lol.
Thank you Blessed Mother for this wonderful Birthday gift
New Life Fellowship Church : Youth In Action Conference