Walk Boldly With Jesus

I Am Loved (Identity Series)

John 13:23 “One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved,* was reclining at Jesus’ side.”

This scripture verse was given at my prayer group, and the following words of prophecy were given:  “You are also the one whom Jesus loves.  So, your place is to be listening to his heartbeat when you pray. So, put your head on his chest and listen to his heartbeat.  Say I love you and be at peace.”  Is there anything more calming than putting your head on someone’s chest and listening to their heartbeat?  I pictured when I was little and if I was scared and I went to lie with my parents.  Just putting my head on their chest and listening to their heartbeat would make me feel better. It seemed so rhythmic and soothing.

“You are also the one whom Jesus loves.”  How many of you believe this?  Like truly in the depths of your heart believe this?  You are also the one whom Jesus loves.  Sometimes, it is easy to say that Jesus is love.  It is easy to say that Jesus loves everyone.  And yet, even as we are saying it, we are discounting ourselves from that love.  We know He loves everyone and yet we don’t believe that he loves us?  We don’t feel that love or even understand why He would love us.  Who are we to be loved by Jesus?

You are the son or daughter of the one true king. That is who you are.  You were made in the likeness and image of God.  You are deeply loved by Him.  Why do you discount yourself from that love?  Or maybe you put a lot of pressure on yourself to be worthy enough of God’s love.  Maybe you think if you just do things perfectly, then God will love you.  If you attend weekly mass and volunteer for every fundraiser, you will be worthy of God’s love.  Are you constantly feeling like you are not good enough for God’s love?

Guess what? None of us are.  None of us are worthy of God’s love, yet he lavishes it freely anyway.  You do not have to do anything to earn God’s love.  Well, as I wrote that, what came to mind was we do have to accept it.  God can tell us all day long that he loves us, but if we don’t accept it, then it doesn’t matter.  Yesterday, I talked about abiding in God’s love and how abiding means acceptance.  Can you accept God’s love?  Can you accept that he loves you just as you are, with no strings attached?

This is a new kind of love for so many.  Some people have never had someone in their lives who loved them completely, with no strings attached.  Unconditional love is not a thing they even new.  If you are struggling to believe that Jesus loves you, just as you are, think about your childhood and your past relationships.  What do you think of when you think about love?  Did you have to earn love growing up?  What did you feel you had to do to be loved?  For instance, did you have to get good grades,  be a certain weight, be quieter, etc?  Did you feel like your parents' love was conditional on your behavior?  If so, don’t worry. You are not alone.  

We live in a broken world and don’t know how to love each other unconditionally like our heavenly father does.  I think everyone is doing the best they can.  We can only love others to the extent that we are loved.  If your parents do not know unconditional love, they can’t pass it on to you.  The good news is, that you can learn to let Jesus’s love in.  The good news is that Jesus does love us unconditionally.  If we can learn to accept Jesus’s love, then we can learn to pass this love on to others, even if that is not the love we were raised with.

If you struggle with accepting God’s love, I would love to give you some practical tips for how to begin to accept God’s love.  I went online to see if others had already written about his subject.  I found an article written by Kara J. Lovett called “5 Keys to Accepting God’s Love.”  I would highly suggest you read this article.  I will put a link for it in the description of this episode, but you can easily find it by googling 5 Keys to Accepting God’s Love. CLICK HERE for the article.  In the article she goes into what God says about love and then a section on understanding God’s love.  

Her article mentions five was you can accept God’s love.  They are as follows: Accepting God’s love with scripture, prayer, grace, and quietness & in unexpected places. Kara says in her article that “by digging deep into Scripture and spending time with God in prayer, I realized that I need to stop striving for love and instead strive to accept God’s love, which He has already graciously bestowed on me.”  As I mentioned yesterday, reading the bible is a great way to get to know God’s love. You can see all sorts of examples of God’s love in the bible.  1 John 4:7-10 is a great example of love.  It says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

The second way she mentions is prayer.  When we turn to God and ask for His help, he wants to help us and is just waiting for us to ask.  God knows what we are going through and what are struggles are, and yet he loves it when we talk to Him about them.  Just sit down with a cup of coffee or tea and talk to God like you are talking to your best friend at the kitchen table.  You will be surprised how much closer you get to God when you start having chats with Him regularly.  They can be informal chats about your day, your struggles, and your successes.  God wants to share in all of that with you.

The third way she mentions is Grace.  Learning about grace over these last few years has been huge for me.  Learning to be graceful with yourself is so important.  Kara says that grace is the free, unearned gift of salvation that God has bestowed upon us.  When I looked up the definition online, it said 1a: unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification. b: a virtue coming from God. c: a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine assistance.  We are saved and redeemed through God’s grace.  It is unmerited, meaning we don’t deserve it; we can’t do anything to earn it; it is just bestowed upon us.  How amazing is that?  The third definition is a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine assistance.  We can’t forget this.  We are made holy through divine assistance.  God is always there to help us.  We can’t do any of this on our own.  It is always a partnership.  God has so much grace and mercy for us.  He doesn’t expect us to be perfect, so cut yourself some slack.

The fourth way to accept God’s love is through quietness.  Spend some quiet time with God.  There are so many ways that you can do this.  Maybe you are someone who likes to meditate every morning.  That is wonderful! Maybe you are like me, and every time you try to quiet your mind, all it wants to do is talk to you.  That’s fine, too.  Maybe your quiet time is spent in nature, going for a walk, or sitting outside listening to the sounds of nature.  Maybe your quiet time with God is spent journaling all your thoughts.  There is no right way to spend quiet time with God.  Your relationship with God is like any other relationship; the more time you spend together, the closer you will be.  

The fifth key to accepting God’s love for Kara was letting go of control.  Even though we know at some level that we don’t have to earn God’s love, we still try to prove to Him that we love Him.  We put all these rules and regulations on ourselves about how we have to do this, and we have to do that.  We tend to put a lot of pressure on ourselves.  Once Kara was able to let go of control and remember that Jesus already secured our freedom on the cross, she decided to let go of all the pressure she put on herself and just tried to abide in Jesus’s love.  

God loves you!  He truly does.  I hope that if you are not currently able to accept God’s love, you will spend some time working on learning how to.  I can’t tell you how amazing it is to know that I am always loved.  To know that there is nothing I can do that would make my heavenly father stop loving me.  It gives me so much more confidence in life.  It brings me so much joy.  It breaks my heart when I talk with people who don’t know how much God loves them.  I know it is hard to let love in sometimes.  I have been there before.  It can be hard,  it can take a lot of work, and it is so worth it.  There is so much more waiting for you once you accept and really come to know God’s love for you.  It is there for the taking, free, with no strings attached.  All you have to do is say yes and accept it!

Dear Heavenly Father, I am so thankful that you love us unconditionally.  You love us so completely.  Lord, some of us are struggling to feel this love.  We ask you right now to come into our hearts and fill them with your love, perfect love.  We ask that you begin to break down any walls that we have put up to keep love out.  Lord, we want all the love that you have for us.  Lord, I ask that you bless everyone listening to this with a supernatural feeling of love today.  That the Holy Spirit descends on all of them and that they can physically feel you giving them a hug today.  Lord, you are so amazing.  We are in awe of all that you do each and every day.  We pray that you help our loved ones to open up and feel your love.  Lord, we pray that you shower your love on all the teenagers.  Being a teen is so difficult, and many do not feel any love.  Please show them how amazing your love is, Lord.  We ask all of this in accordance with your holy will and in Jesus’s name, Amen.  

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. The reason we can walk boldly with Jesus is because we have the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of us. Join me for mentoring this month as we talk about this power and what we can do with it. Once we discover the power and the authority Jesus gave us when he left this world, we will be so much better equipped for all life has in store for us. I pray you will join me. I look forward to seeing her here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in August 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “The spirit will lead and guide you, teaching you in things that you do not know. You will not always have a complete vision or full understanding, but I will lead you step by step.”

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I realized after posting yesterday’s podcast episode that I missed Witness Wednesday. I was away for the weekend, and coming back on Monday must have thrown me off. However, I didn’t want you to miss out on Witness Wednesday, so I am just doing it a day late this week.  Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose two testimonies from the Salvation Category. Often, we can hear our own story in someone else’s story. When we listen to others tell their story, it helps us see that we are not alone. When we hear how God worked in their situation, it gives us hope that He will work in ours, too! I pray when you hear these testimonies, you get the faith and hope to believe that miracles can happen in your situation, also. I pray you know that God is there with you, and if you invite Him into your situation, He can help. I hope you enjoy these testimonies.

My name is Cyndi. My broken story started before I was even born. I was the last of my bio mom’s seven kids.  Unfortunately, she was an alcoholic who drank during her pregnancy, so I have Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.

When I was born in 1971, I weighed about 3 lbs. I was adopted at age 1. Unfortunately, the family I was adopted into was dysfunctional. I suffered all manner of abuse, including sexual abuse. This hurt me so bad that I wanted to die for many years.

I was diagnosed at twenty with Bipolar Disorder. But I didn’t take the medication because I just didn’t want to. I got pregnant at twenty-one.  I literally had my son on my twenty second birthday.  I married his dad four months later.

But my husband was abusive, mentally, emotionally, and verbally.  And because I had never dealt with my previous abuse, I believed his abuse was my fault. Not only did I stay with him and raise my son, but I also had another child, a daughter, when my son was six years old.

Even though I thought our problems were my fault, I still knew how ridiculous that sounded because I knew I didn’t really want to live like that. I separated from him when my daughter was three and tried to take the kids.

He used lies and insinuation to get them back. I ended up being divorced and having visitation with my kids. It wasn’t easy, but we managed to survive. You may wonder about my faith throughout all of this. Don’t worry, I’m getting there!  I was raised Catholic but got into the Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1996. I stayed that in that group until November of 2022, when I learned it wasn’t what I had been led to believe.

I was a lost soul for a little while but came back to Christianity the next November and have been loving it since. I’m quite happy these days. I do take meds. I have two spectacular kids and a wonderful granddaughter. I’ve been through more therapy than I care to admit and I’m still in it. But I’ve learned that it’s okay to not be okay sometimes.

Because I spent twenty-seven years not doing any holidays or birthdays, I take care to do them all and really celebrate them.  I really appreciate and enjoy my friends and family. So, I guess I have a pretty good ending to my broken story.

But it’s all because of Jesus. I do wish that my kids would love Jesus like I do, but they have to get to know him from a different perspective now. Just like I did.

Ben:  I grew up in a Christian home going to church every Sunday, being involved in AWANA and Youth Group, and going to Bible camps based on the Bible. The broken chapters of my life started before age 14. I was a Christian then. I believed hard on God, He was my Savior and He loved me. In 2017, when I was in the 6th grade, the garage of my house went up in flames. That was really tough for me and my whole family to go through. I hated God through that. It was about a year of moving around, and not being in my own neighborhood.
Further into my life starting around age fourteen is when I fell apart from God.  I got introduced into pornography. That was my biggest struggle. A lot of changes happened. I hated God and felt like I didn’t belong with Him. Satan took me over and I felt what he could do to me. Just to be living through that, though, is how I saw God. I became an addict to pornography and that was really harsh. Going though that, plus still going to church was a struggle. I believed that God didn’t want me and that He left me. I hated God for writing my life like this. And yet, I prayed almost every day for Him to bring me out of this hell, out of Satan’s world.

Skipping forward in my life, I am now two months from my 16th birthday. In late February 2021, I moved from my hometown of Naperville, IL to South Nashville, TN. This was the biggest move of my entire life. I was confused and scared of moving so far away, but during this time I was doing better with God. I felt Him closer to me and with me more often. As life moved on during February, I came to realize that God has made my life for a purpose and He has drawn my path. So I just had to trust God that He knew what He was doing in my life. In June 2021, me and my family took a trip back up to my hometown to see friends and family and the community. About halfway through the trip, I was fishing at one of my favorite lakes and started to talk to God. I fished there that day for about 2 1/2 hours and during that time I was having a conversation with God. I felt really close to Him and loved Him. I poured out my fears and thoughts.

During week three of the trip, I was in bed one night thinking of my strong fear of death. It scared me so bad, something happened between me and the Lord that I fell apart again. That time was one of the closest times I came to taking my own life, but I never did because of God. He came into my thoughts and blocked that idea. I was so scared of death, I couldn’t do it.

In week 4 of June, my family and I made our way to Gull Lake Ministries, in Hickory Corners, Michigan. The Friday of that week, I was out on the fishing dock at night about 10:30pm and was listening to my Christian music playlist and the song ‘Way Maker’ came on. I poured out my heart to The Lord Jesus Christ asking for forgiveness. After that night, I asked God to come back to my heart.  I prayed and I cried happy tears knowing I had been saved.

The week before school started, I joined my school’s marching band…lots of hard work balancing that with my studies and with God. A month later, I was greatly in line with God. A month after that I met this girl who was in my instrument section for marching band. She is a very strong believer and a true Christian. She is one of the main people that brought me back to Christ. We prayed together and we both shared music, verses and Bible plans to know Jesus more. Finding a church is one of the harder struggles along with finding a youth group that can be of fit for me to be more connected.
One week, she invited me to her youth group and I liked it. I was able to become closer to the Lord and know that community.

Two days later, the thought of killing myself and hurting myself came back. I fell apart from God again. I talked to my friend about this, and she seemed really worried. She tried to talk me out of it. She talked to her parents and gave me music and Bible verses about how God wants me, loves me, and knows me. This lasted about two weeks which is the longest I have had in my life yet. The struggle with the aftermath –going through that was the hardest. Reconnecting myself with God, I found this song by Matthew West called ‘The God Who Stays.’ I put this song on repeat and listened to it about 100+ times. The lyrics of the song are really powerful and meaningful. After about a week, I grew closer to Christ, and during worship in a church service, I poured my heart out to the Lord. I felt him right next to me and knew that He was with me. Over the last couple months, I have been in line with Jesus, asking for forgiveness, talking openly to friends about Him, and being involved with church leaders. Now I see and consider myself a Christian, after three years of on/off with God. I am back.

I got baptized on February 18, 2022. I love Jesus and I never want to lose Him again.  Amen!

Thank you so much to both of you for sharing your stories. You have both had such a hard journey. I appreciate you being vulnerable and sharing your story so that others know they are not alone. It also shows them that if God got you through it, he will get them through it too! Thank you so much for sharing!

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I Am Fearfully & Wonderfully Made (Identity Series)

Psalm 139:14 “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”

The I praise you part first stood out to me in this verse.  Praise is one of my favorite things to talk about.  I love praising the Lord.  Also, I have read a lot of books, and so many of them point out that praising the Lord is a great way to increase your faith, get more answers to your prayers, have more strength when in a difficult situation, and have more joy in your life. I was all set to begin with talking about praise when something, I think the Holy Spirit, told me to pause and read the whole sentence.  So I did.  “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”  I did not see anything jump out at me.  So, I decided to see what exactly that means.

I was thinking maybe I wasn’t being moved by the sentence because I didn’t understand what was being said.  I was right!  That is a very powerful statement if you know what those two words mean.  Let’s take the first word, fearfully, first.  Fearfully, when translated from Hebrew, means with great reverence, heart-felt interest, and respect.  I understand why we would have great reverence for God.  He is our Father, and He created us.  It makes total sense that we would have great reverence for Him.  However, this is talking about us.  This sentence is praising God for making us with great reverence, heart-felt interest, and respect.  Did you know that’s how you were made?  Did you know God put all those things into making you?  Do you feel a little bit better about yourself now?

Let's take the next word wonderfully.  I bet we all think that we know what that word means.  We may also be thinking that although it is a pretty word, it is used so often that when we hear it, we don’t necessarily feel wonderful.  The word wonderful, when translated from Hebrew, means unique and set apart.  I am sure that it has occurred to everyone before that we are all different from each other.  But I wonder if it occurred to you that that means you are unique?  You are one of a kind.  So, the next time you are trying to judge or compare yourself to someone else, remember that you are unique. There is no one like you on this entire earth.  There are people who are going through the same things as you, and there are people who have similar struggles as you, but there is no one exactly like you.  You are not alone in your struggle, but you are one of a kind in how you were made.  You are also set apart.  I like the sound of that.  Instead of being lumped in with everyone else, we are set apart.  God set us apart from others.  

Does knowing this change the way you think about yourself?  Does it help you fight off that voice inside of you that tells you that you are not enough or that you are not loved?  Think about how amazing God must think you are to have made you with great reverence, heart-felt interest, and respect.  Did you know that God had reverence for you?  Did you know that He respected you?  Maybe this is not news to you; maybe you knew this all along.  This is the first time that I slowed down long enough with this passage to ask myself what that even means.  

This is one of the things that I love about doing this podcast.  I am not reading whole chunks of the Bible at a time.  I am reading a verse or two.    When you break it down into bite-size pieces like this, you get to examine those pieces more carefully.  I have also discovered that I am not the only person who does not know what those two words mean.  I think sometimes we don’t ask questions because we assume that we are the only ones who don’t know the answer.  Then we start to tell ourselves that if everyone else knows it, then there must be something wrong with us because we don’t, and then we don’t ask because we don’t want to feel stupid.  Come on, you know you have done this before.  I can’t be the only person this has happened to.  Anyway, it turns out that the Bible's language is confusing for many people.  In the course of writing the episodes for this podcast, I have searched for many answers, and I have always found them.  

If I were the only person who was confused, someone else wouldn’t have taken the time to research my question and put the answer on the internet.  The internet is also an amazing thing.  I am not sure how many of you use it to answer your questions, but I highly recommend it.  First, you can ask it anything.  You don’t have to remember where you can find something in the Bible because you can type it into the search bar, and the internet will find it for you.  You can type part of a verse into the search bar, and the internet tells you where you can find it in the Bible.  What I do is type my question exactly how I would ask a person, and I always come up with great answers.  I don’t just put a word or two. I put the whole sentence in the search bar.  Second, you don’t have to feel silly asking a question that you’re sure you are the only person who doesn’t know the answer to because no one knows you are asking the question.  You are asking for the computer, and it is not going to tell anyone.  It doesn’t talk, so it won’t make you feel silly.  

When reading through the Bible, asking questions is great.  It was written a very long time ago in a different language and to a people living in a different time and a different culture.  There are things in it that are not going to make sense to us.  However, if we ask questions when we have them, we realize that even though they were written so long ago to very different people, they are still just as relevant today.  It is still talking to us today; when we just read through it and gloss over the parts or pass over the parts we don’t understand, we miss an opportunity to know what God is trying to tell us.  This verse above is well written and has beautiful language, but if I hadn’t asked, “What does fearfully and wonderfully made mean?” I wouldn’t have learned that this verse is so much deeper than it seemed.  Ask your questions!  You deserve to know the answers.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I pray you bless everyone listening to this episode today.  Lord, we thank you that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.  You are so gracious, and we love you.  Lord, we ask that you help us to understand the Bible when we read it.  We ask that you give us the courage to ask questions when we don’t know what something means.  Lord, we ask that you help us take in the meaning of the words fearfully and wonderfully made.  We ask that you let those words sink into our hearts and help us to know how special we are.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name. Amen. 

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I would like to invite you to another journey. The journey of mentoring. This month, I am teaching all about the Power of God Within Us! We all have power living inside of us, and the more we learn about the power and authority we have inside of us, the stronger we will be in this crazy world. I pray you will join me and learn about the power you have because Christ died for us and send us the Holy Spirit. Remember, Jesus loves you so much, just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in August 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I am your God. My light will shine brightly in you because you have been with me.”

CLICK HERE ✨ JOIN WALK BOLDLY WITH JESUS MENTORING (Live Tuesdays + recordings available — $30/month)

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I Am Blessed (Identity Series)

Ephesians 1:3-6  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,  even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

What beautiful scripture verses!  These definitely seem like good ones to write down and re-read any time we are having a bad day.  God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly place.  I can’t even imagine how much blessing that is. God must really love us if he is blessing us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly place.  

Then, it goes on to say that He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world and that we should be holy and blameless before him.  He chose us before the foundation of the world.  That seems so crazy to me.  It is crazy to me that God knew everything that was going to happen, and yet he still chose to create us.  He made us to be holy and blameless in His sight and yet we have failed at this over and over again.  

Oftentimes, we say hindsight is 20/20.  Meaning we can only see things perfectly when we are through them and looking back at them with he knowledge we gained through the experience.  For instance, when we are going through a difficult time, we don’t really understand it, and we make our decisions based on the info that we have at the time.  However, when we are through that difficult circumstance, and we know how things ended, then we realize we perhaps should have made a different decision.  

It is not the same for God.  He knows everything.  Nothing is a surprise to Him.  I find it remarkable that even though He knew how often we would turn our backs on Him or do the exact opposite of what He wanted us to do, He still went ahead and created us.  He not only decided to create us knowing all the times we would mess up, but He also kept forgiving us.  Time and time again, we do the things we know we are not supposed to do; God keeps forgiving us.  

I wonder if we would do the same?  Many people say that they learned a lot after going through something really difficult.  However, I wonder, even knowing all that we learned or gained from the difficult experience, how many of us would choose to go through it all over again.  Think about a really difficult time in your life.  Think about how hard or how painful it was. Then, think about what you learned from it or gained from it.

Everything that we go through teaches us something if we are open to seeing it.  We can find a lesson in every experience.  For instance, going through a really hard time in a relationship can teach you resilience, and/or how to be persistent and to work hard at something.  It can also teach you to be stronger.  If the relationship ends, it can be difficult, and you can learn something from that, too.  It can teach you what to look for and what to avoid in your next relationship.  Do you see how there is always something you can learn?  

However, even knowing all the benefits you have gained from this experience, I wonder how many of us would choose to do it again.  What about a friendship that ended badly?  Imagine you had a really good friend for several years, and then something happened, and that friendship ended.  You felt really hurt when it was over.  Do you wish that you had never met that person?  If you could go back in time to when you met that person, would you go meet them?  Would you spend all those years building up good memories if it meant that you had to go through the pain of losing that friendship again?

I think that many of us would choose not to go through difficult times if we could.  We would choose to stay in our comfort zone and not venture out of it.  Not try new things because we could get hurt or we could fail.  We would and often times we do tend to play it safe.  The thing is, we do not grow when we are in our comfort zone.  We do not grow without challenges.  Do those challenges often bring difficult times? Yes.  Do we grow immensely in those difficult times? Yes.  Well, if we allow ourselves to grow, then we do.  This is what God wants for us.  He wants us to grow and become stronger.  He wants us to lean into Him when things get hard and to be open to growth during these times.  

God chose to go through all the pain just for us.  He knew all the things we would do, He knew all the ways that we would hurt Him, and yet He still chose us.  He still chooses us every single day.  Is that not incredible to you?  I honestly find it difficult to believe some days with the way the world seems to be going.  It seems as though the world as a whole is trying to remove God from more and more things.  And yet, He keeps hanging in there.  He keeps performing miracles and blessing His children.  

The next part of the verses listed above says, “In love, He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ.”  He predestined, that just verifies that He knew all that was going to happen and yet had a backup plan.  He knew we would need saving and yet still predestined our adoption through His son, Jesus Christ.  He loved us so much that He sent his son to be crucified for our sins.  

One thing that we may not often think about is the fact that God not only knew all we were going to do, but He knows how our story ends.  He knows how all of this ends.  By sending His son to be crucified on the cross for our sins, He has already redeemed us and granted us salvation if we choose to accept it. It says in 1 Corinthians 15:57, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  God has already won this fight for us.   We don’t have to worry about how things will turn out.  Romans 8:28  tells us, “ 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.”

God has predetermined that we would be his adopted children.  Because of this we know that He will work all things for our good.  He knows the mistakes we will make, and he loves us anyway.  Yes, you heard that correctly, and yes, I am talking to you.  God loves you and accepts you for who you are, flaws in all. God knew you were going to do that thing that you keep thinking about, and he made you in His likeness and image anyway.  Remember the beginning of this episode: God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.  God has blessed you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.  What an amazing Father we have!

Dear heavenly father, I ask that you bless everyone listening to this episode today. Lord, we thank you for blessing us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. I am sure we can't even imagine how many blessings that is. Lord, we love you so very much. It is crazy for us to think about how you knew all the ways we were going to mess up, and yet you decided to create us anyway. Lord, we can never thank you enough for sending down your son to die on the cross for our sins. Lord, we thank you for taking us in as your sons and daughters. We thank you for using all things for our good and for helping us be victorious in the end. Lord, we thank you for being patient with us while we make these mistakes and for always forgiving us when we ask. Lord, you are amazing.  We ask all of these things in accordance with your will and in Jesus's holy name, amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Today, we kick off our new February Series for Mentoring. This month’s series will be “The Power of God Within Us.” I hope you will join us to learn all about the power of God that you have living inside of you all the time. You are more powerful than you know, and once you learn about that power, you can begin to use that power to help you wherever you need help. I pray you will join us this evening. There is a link below with all the details. If you email me, I can also send you the link to see what it is like before you join. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in August 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I will shower you with blessings, with my love, my comfort, my strength, my peace. Then you will be able to go out in the world and share it with others."

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 I Am Holy (Identity Series)

Ephesians 1:3-4 “Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from our wonderful heavenly father, the Father of our Lord Jesus—all because he sees us wrapped into Christ. This is why we celebrate him with all our hearts! And in love he chose us before he laid the foundation of the universe! Because of his great love, he ordained us, so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with and unstained innocence.”

When I read these two verses this morning, I thought they were so beautiful. They begin with “Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from our wonderful heavenly father.” Isn’t that beautiful? Did you know that your heavenly Father is lavishing spiritual blessings on you? The word blessing in this verse is a translation of the Greek word eulogy, which means “to speak well of.” Since God is acting in this verse, we can say that God has spoken good things about us or pronounced good things for our benefit. The good things that God has decreed for us are probably beyond our ability to number.

Can you imagine your heavenly Father showering you with blessings? Did you know that is what He is doing? I know sometimes it doesn’t feel like you are getting any blessings, but this might be because you are in the middle of a hard time. You might not be able to see the blessings because you are so focused on the hard thing that is happening. You might think there is no way God could be blessing you because of all you are going through.

This isn’t true. God can bless us in the middle of a hard time. He can bless us whenever He wants to. You might be wondering what that may look like, what it would look like to have a blessing while in the middle of a hardship. That could look like someone you know checking on you to see if you need anything. It could look like your friends and family bringing you meals when they know you have no time to cook. It could look like you getting a job promotion right when you need it the most! Have any of these ever happened to you? What about when a stranger says something to you out of the blue and it is exactly what you needed to hear?

God is not just blessing us, He is lavishing spiritual blessings upon us. This can go against our picture of God. We all have a picture of God in our head and for some of us, probably a lot of us, it is not a picture of a wonderful heavenly Father. Many of us picture the heavenly Father similar to our dad growing up. So if you had a loving Father growing up the idea that our heavenly Father is loving is easier to grasp. However, if our earthly Father was not outwardly loving and was hard on you, maybe expected a lot out of you, then this is how you might see our heavenly Father too. But God's love is beyond our earthly understanding, and He cherishes each and every one of us.

I know a lot of people who picture the Lord as an old man with a white mustache and beard sitting up in heaven, looking down on us and judging us. They picture God as someone who is just waiting for them to screw up so He can punish them. They are sure they are disappointing Him all of the time. I think this is why I chose these verses and why I like these verses so much.

The second verse for today dispels this myth that God is up in heaven just waiting for us to mess up. It says, “And in love he chose us before he laid the foundation of the universe! Because of his great love, he ordained us, so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with and unstained innocence.” First, it says that God chose us before He laid the foundation of the Universe. God chose you. Let that sink in for a moment. God chose you before He even created the universe. Does that sound like the act of a Father that is sitting up in heaven waiting for you to screw up so He can punish you?

Next it says, “Because of His great love, he ordained us, so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with unstained innocence.” Listen to that last part again, “so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with unstained innocence.” God doesn’t look at us as if we are a wreck waiting to happen. In His eyes, we have an unstained innocence about us. God doesn’t want us to mess up. He doesn’t want us to sin or to fall away from Him. He loves us. He chose us. He wants us to be right there with Him for all eternity.

God loves us. He looks down upon us as a loving Father would. Once we realize this our relationship with the Heavenly Father will become so much closer. If we haven’t really experienced true love in this world, then it might be hard to understand how much our heavenly Father loves us. One thing I am finding that can help with this is to read the scriptures. Read the Psalms, read the New Testament. Last week I read Philippians and this week I am reading Ephesians and they are just beautiful. The Bible is a living document. It is not just a book of words that the Lord told His people back in the day. The Bible is speaking to each one of us right now. When you read the Bible you will realize it is just as relevant to what you are going through today than it was back then. God is so good, His Words are timeless.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless everyone listening to this episode today. Lord, we ask that you help us to understand your love for us. We ask you to help us understand how loved we are. We ask that you help us to change our hearts and are minds about who you are and what you want from us. We want to see you as you truly are not as we picture you in our minds. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! May the grace and favor of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your Spirit!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in August 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email, “I use all things for good. Trust in me. I am directing your life. Every change, every movement in your life is set on me, and I pull you, pull you towards me.”

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I Am Changed (Identity Series)

Romans 3:23-24 “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty of our sins.”

We have all done things in the past that we are not proud of, and sometimes, we get stuck thinking about those things. We replay them over and over again in our minds and think about how different our lives would be if we had not done them. Some of us think that the things we did were so bad that there is no way God could ever forgive us or love us. Regret is a terrible thing. It sucks the life out of the present moment if you let it. Our minds are powerful, and we will believe what they tell us. We may know in our hearts that God will always forgive us if we truly repent. We know in our hearts that God will always love us no matter what we do and that we do not have to earn his love. However, sometimes, that little voice inside of us will listen to the enemy, and our brain will believe the lies that he tells us. Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The evil one likes to take this phrase and use it to whisper things in our ears like, “See, no one is good enough,” or “No matter what you do, you will always fall short of God’s standards.” He tells us that we shouldn’t even bother because we are not enough. Do you ever feel that way, like you are not enough? What many of us may not know is what the very next verse, Romans 3:24, says, “Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty of our sins.” Yes, we all sin, but God’s grace “makes us right in his sight.” Another way the enemy likes to get to us is to tell us that we will never change. That we are still the same person who did that thing we regret. If we strive to change, he tells us that we can’t change. He reminds us of the things we have done in the past and whispers that we will do it again. There is a song I heard for the first time on the Big Life Devotional, and it is “Slave to Nothing” by Zach Williams. In this song he says:

You can tell me what I did
You can show me who I was before
Where I fell short
Hang it over my head
But I'm not the same anymore
One thing's for sure
The shackles have fallen
So I'm showing shame to the door
Make no mistake
I'm a slave, to nothing

If you get a chance to listen to this song, I highly recommend it. click here

Just because you have acted a certain way in the past does not mean that you have to act that way forever. You can decide to repent and change your ways at any point in time, and God will be there to forgive you and welcome you in with open arms. Think about the many saints that have had beginnings that were not so great. One of the most illustrious saints, I think, is St. Augustine of Hippo. He was a man who was known for having not one but two mistresses. He ran around for years before having a change of heart and settling down at 31. St. Augustine went on to become a Doctor of the Church. Then there is also Saint Mary of Egypt, who ran away from home at 12 and spent a dozen years living on the street as a seductress. According to Craughwell in an article in Live Science, “Nothing made her happier than corrupting innocent young Christian men.” Saint Mary went to Jerusalem looking for young Christian boys to seduce. At the doors to the church, she felt a strange force repulsing her, and she immediately changed her ways. There was also Saint Camillus de Lellis, a priest from Italy that founded one of the first healthcare organizations for the needy. He started out as a cardsharp, con man, and mercenary. 

There are also lots of modern-day examples of people who had a rough start. Jennifer Aniston, who is one of the most famous actors because of her role in the sitcom Friends, had 4 failed sitcoms in a row before she landed the role on Friends. Tim Allen, who starred in Home Improvement, is now starring in Last Man Standing and was also the voice of Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story Movies. In 1979, he was caught with many illegal substances and went to jail for over 2 years. Then he got his life together and became the actor we know and love today. Oprah Winfrey grew up in poverty and did not have the best childhood. She was molested during her childhood and early teens and became pregnant at 14; her son was born too early and died in infancy. Can you imagine the things the enemy was trying to tell her? What was he trying to tell all of these people? What if these people would have believed the lies that they could not become anything different? If they believed that the version of themselves that was not enough or prone to sinning was all they could ever be? What if they stopped reaching for more because they believed they could never achieve more? 

What lies do you believe? How much more could you accomplish or become if you stopped believing the lies? You may have made mistakes in the past. You may wish that you could change certain things. Do not let those things hold you back from being who you are today. Do not believe the lies that you are not enough, lazy, selfish, greedy, etc. Just because you may have been those things in the past does not mean that you have to be those things in the future. You can be whoever you want to be because God has redeemed you with his grace!

~ The blog this week was inspired by The Big Life Devotional by Pamela Crim. If you have time to listen to the original episode that inspired me, I highly recommend it. You can reach that episode by clicking here. The episode was called A Slave To Nothing.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, you are amazing, and we love you. We ask you to help us guard our minds and help us not to believe the enemy’s lies. We ask that you help us believe we can change and that we are not who we once were. Change is possible. We ask all this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed weekend!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in August 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Be not afraid to go out and share my love, my light, my hope, my joy. All that I share with you, I keep saying, share it with the world so that they may know me and get to love me.”

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I Am Victorious (Identity Series)

Ephesians 6:13 “Because of this, you must wear all the armor that God provides so you're protected as you confront the slander, for you are destined for all things and will rise victorious.

I looked at several different scriptures for this morning's devotional. There are so many good ones in Ephesians. I don’t know why I never saw them before. Or maybe I did, and the Lord is just showing me them again in a different light. I am not sure, but I love it! I saw this verse first this morning, and then I went back and forth on a few others, but my eyes kept being drawn back to this one. I know a lot of you are going through some really hard things right now, and what I felt when I kept being drawn back to this verse was that God wants you to know that you will rise victorious!

He wants you to know that this thing you are going through, the situation you are in, will not take you down. This illness will not be the end. These financial matters won’t be the end. Your estranged loved ones, this is not the end. You will be victorious. You will be healed. Your loved one will be healed. The Lord will provide for you to pay your bills. You won’t be estranged from your loved one forever. Whatever it is you are struggling with this morning, I feel the Lord wants me to tell you you will rise victorious.

The last part of this verse made me think of a song I saw in a movie called Pitch Perfect 2. The song was sung by a group of Germans who were competing in an a cappella singing competition. This song came into my mind because their performance was so powerful. They projected such strength when they performed this song. This is what we must do when we are dealing with the enemy.

The verse says that we must put on the armor that God provides us so that we are protected when we confront the slander. Make no mistake, the slander is the devil. Of course, he won’t look like the devil. He will look like someone who cut you off in the traffic. He will look like the person spreading lies about you. He will look like your co-worker or your boss. He might look like your children or your siblings. Whoever is causing strife in your life, the enemy is working through them. I want to read you the words to the song that popped into my mind, as I know it is not a coincidence that when I read this verse, this song came to mind. If you want to see the video on YouTube, you can type in Das Sound Machine  Car Show, and it should come up.  Here are the lyrics:

They will not control us. We will be victorious

[Verse 1]

Paranoia is in bloom

The PR transmissions will resume

They try to push drugs that keep us all dumbed down

And hope that we will never see the truths around

Come On!

[Verse 2]

Another promise, another seed

Another packaged lie to keep us trapped in greed

And all the green belts wrapped around our minds

And endless red tape to keep the truth confined

Come On!

[Chorus]

They will not force us

They will stop degrading us

They will not control us

We will be victorious

At first, these lyrics might not seem to make much sense. However, if you think about them in terms of what the enemy is trying to do to us, they make much more sense. The first line goes perfectly with the verse. They will not control us; we will be victorious. The enemy and his evil henchmen will not control us. We are God’s children, and we are protected. However, we must put on our armor of protection. We must call on the Lord. We need to give Him permission to protect us. We need to read the scriptures so we know when the enemy is lying to us. We must stand in truth.

The next verse in the song says Paranoia is in bloom. The PR transmissions will resume. They try to push drugs that keep us all dumbed down. And hope that we will never see the truth around. Come On! This may not fit perfectly, but when we really think about it, we can see that the enemy is trying to make us feel paranoid. All we have to do is listen to the news for a few minutes, and we can see all the craziness going on in the world today. Also, it says they try to push drugs that keep us all dumbed down. And hope that we will never see the truth around us. How many of us know someone who has struggled with drug or alcohol abuse? We know it is all around us, yet do we know that the enemy is the one who is pushing it on us. Do we know he is trying to keep us on drugs so we don’t see the truth all around us? When we use drugs, when we drink, it alters our state, and we don’t see things as they really are.

The next verse of the song says, “Another promise, another seed, another packaged lie to keep us trapped in greed. And all the green belts wrapped around our minds. And endless red tape to keep the truth confined. Come On!” How many people in our lives have promised us promise after promise and yet not kept them? How many times have people in the government, or in any authoritative power, promised something, and yet it never happened? I like how it says, “another packaged lie to keep us trapped in greed.” This is so true in the world today. The enemy will tell us anything we want to hear to keep us trapped in greed. The world is all about how much we have and how much we can get. It is not about giving to others. It is about making sure we have what we need despite others.

Next, the song says, “And all the green belts wrapped around our minds. And endless red tape to keep the truth confined.” Do you ever feel like this? Do you feel like the information we get from the news, social media, and YouTube are all just feeding us what we want to hear? Sometimes, I feel like the truth is impossible to find. It is always hidden in someone else’s opinion about what happened. It is very hard to find the facts about the actual incident. The truth is harder and harder to find these days.

The chorus of this song is one that I recommend we use as a mantra anytime we are having a rough day or anytime the enemy seems to be overtaking our thoughts. It says, “They will not force us. They will stop degrading us. They will not control us. We will be victorious.” We know this is true because the Lord tells us this in Ephesians 6:13. We will be victorious. The enemy can not force you. This is one of those things that the enemy doesn’t want us to know. If God is willing to be bound by free will you better believe the enemy is also. He likes us to think he can do whatever he wants to us, and yet if we tell him to leave, he must leave. That is a fact he doesn’t want us to know.

You are so much more powerful than you know. The enemy is trying to keep this from us because He knows the game will be over if all of God’s children start living in the power that the Lord gave us. If we all stood up to the enemy and said, “No more! I am done with your games. I know you can’t hurt me because I am a child of the one true God. I know you have no power over me. I know you are a liar, and I refuse to believe your stupid lies anymore.” Can you imagine what type of world we would be living in if we were all able to do that? It would be glorious!

I don’t want to leave this verse today without addressing the beginning part of the verse. My eyes first went to the part that says, “You will be victorious,” and I think that message was what God wanted me to focus on today, yet I also want to make sure you all heard the first part, too, so I will end with that today. The verse above says it is important to wear the armor that God provides because “You are destined for all things.” You have a destiny and it is an amazing one. Do you know how I know it is an amazing one when I might not even know you? Because the enemy is attacking you. The enemy doesn’t care about those who are lukewarm or those whose souls he thinks he has already won. The enemy attacks those who he is worried will do great things for the kingdom of God. The enemy only attacks those who are powerful warriors for the Lord.

You, my friend, have an amazing destiny, and you will be victorious. I know things are hard right now. I know you can’t see a way out and you think all is about to come crashing down on you. You don’t see how your loved one will come back to you. You don’t see how the cancer will be defeated. You don’t see how you will pay your bills when your paycheck can’t possibly cover it all. I get it. We can’t always see how, and we don’t need to. All we need to do is believe the Lord when He says we will be victorious. We can just thank Him, praise Him and wait for Him to work all things for our good.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, I ask you to protect our minds from the enemy. I ask you to help us to believe that we will be victorious. Show us how to put on the armor of God, Lord. Show us how to protect ourselves from the slanderer. Help us walk in our victory, Lord. Help us have hope that even though we don’t see how you will arrange all things for our victory. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus! I have enjoyed this month of Identity, and I pray you have learned a lot about who God says you are! I will be putting together a book of 31 different scripture verses about identity and making it a 31-day devotional. I hope you will look out for it in the coming months. My prayer is that it will help you grow in your identity as a child of God. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in August 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I am love. I am joy. I am hope. You must go out to the world and share all that I share with you. You are my children, and I love you so dearly.”

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Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose two testimonies from the Healing Category. Often, we can hear our own story in someone else’s story. When we listen to others tell their story, it helps us see that we are not alone. When we hear how God worked in their situation, it gives us hope that He will work in ours, too! I pray when you hear these testimonies, you get the faith and hope to believe that miracles can happen in your situation, also. I pray you know that God is there with you, and if you invite Him into your situation, He can help. I hope you enjoy these testimonies.

Karen:  In 2004 my mom suffered kidney failure and started dialysis at 75. It was very hard on her while my older sister tested to be a donor and was ruled out. Then my older brother tested and was unable to donate. It’s important to note that they are both biological children and I was adopted. I was also a single mom raising two kids at 37, so needless to say I was scared to donate, but I prayed and my growth group prayed with me. Come to find out, a man sitting beside me had donated his kidney to his daughter and was doing great 18 years later. I also kept seeing signs to remind me that “greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for another,” so I stepped up and was deemed acceptable but had to lose 40 pounds to do so.

Mom was getting more drained by the day. I lost the weight in 8 weeks and surgery was scheduled for October, but mom suffered a hematoma and surgery was put off till February for her healing. The waiting was tough. It made me second guess but I still did it.  In February 2005, she was able to stop dialysis after I donated my kidney to her and my prayer was that God would take care of us. It’s because of seeing the toll mom and my grandma went through on dialysis I knew I could never do that. Lesson learned. Never tell God what you can’t do!

Fast forward 14 years. I got kidney cancer and had a partial nephrectomy in September of 2019. Unfortunately surgery had complications and I had a collapsed lung, respiratory distress, and internal bleeding that resulted in a 34 day hospital stay including a medically induced coma for 2 weeks. My family was unsure if I would make it or not. I remember asking God to take me as I was on a ventilator and unconscious, but He said it wasn’t my time yet, He had great plans for me. My kids still needed me so I asked Him to heal me. Within 2 days I was awake, and the next day the ventilator came out. A few days after that I left ICU for a regular room. That only lasted 2 days before being discharged to rehab for 2 weeks where I learned how to walk again.

Unfortunately, my kidney never woke up after that surgery even though I still had 78% left, but they think the medications they gave me for the coma were too strong and could have damaged it further. Thus began my time on dialysis and boy was it miserable. Three times a week I would go in and be hooked up to a life-saving machine for 3 hours, then be exhausted after with muscle cramps, nausea, high blood pressure, headaches, and overall feeling miserable. I had numerous surgeries for peritoneal dialysis but it never worked. I had numerous hospital stays for high blood pressure, headaches, abdominal pain, and bowel obstructions. It was the roughest 33 months of my life.

I was finally approved for a transplant in April of 2022 and on Mother’s Day May 8, 2022 I got a new kidney! Praise God for only He could schedule that! After giving my mom a kidney in 2005, He gave me one on Mother’s Day- amazing! It’s now several months later and although it hasn’t been a picnic I am so thankful to be on the road to health and healing. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

We celebrated my parents 69th wedding anniversary this past Sunday and I’m so thankful for all that God has done and continues to do on a daily basis for me! To God be the glory!

Emily:  Hello, I’m Emily. I’m a 10 time Breast Cancer Survivor. Yes, you read that right, ….TEN.

It all began with a stomach ache in 2008. As I went to my doctor for a routine exam, she found the Cancer! Of course, I had to go through an ultrasound and mammogram first, but my doctor had saved my life by detecting this early, I thought.

I was 33, had 3 kids, (ages 6, 2, and 8 months) and a full-time job teaching 1st graders at a public school. Cancer? Who has time for Cancer? I was told it is an aggressive form and difficult to treat, because doctors don’t know much about it. I have Triple Negative Breast Cancer. I fought with everything I had through chemo, radiation and a lumpectomy.

God and I spent a lot of time talking about how I was going to win this battle and with His help, I did, for 4 1/2 years.

The Demon itself returned in March of 2012, just before my 5 year clear mark. I was devastated, scared, angry, frustrated and MAD at God. Why was this happening to me again? Why do I have to go through this again? This isn’t fair! God carried me through the second battle, just as He did the first with just as much grace and comfort.

Fast-forward to 2022. I’ve now had TWO double mastectomies, a lumpectomy, ten biopsies, a DIEP flap reconstruction surgery, 3 more rounds of chemo (78 total treatments), 3 different types of radiation (67 total treatments), and Proton therapy (35 treatments) to try and kill this cancer. It has reared its ugly head 10 times and this is going to be the last!!!

Just a month and a half ago, I learned about a new drug that people were having success rates with. It was a Godsend and true miracle. An email delivered to my inbox revealed something we’ve been waiting for for 15 years!!!! The product is working and I will have another scan in February to hear that there is NED (No evidence of disease)!!! I am positive after reading the success stories!

I tell my story to say this… God is the only reason I am still here!!!! Nobody survives Cancer 10 times without God. Period.  If you are battling Cancer of any kind, just know that God is on your side and He is the ultimate healer!!!! Without Him and our faith, we are nothing!! I’m still standing AND teaching for 15 years and 10 battles later!

God is so good and Matthew West, you’re my favorite!!! Your music inspires me and the children in my class from rough homes every single day!! Our favorite is “How Good Of God!”

Thank you both so much for sharing your stories. I know it can be hard to be vulnerable and share your story with other. When you are able to do so though it helps other people see they are not alone. It provides hope to those who hear it. Thank you!

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I Am Anointed (Identity Series)

Psalm 23:5-6 “You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.”

There is a lot to like about this verse.  First, it starts out by saying that God will prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.  I don’t have to be worried about my enemies as God has got me.  He is my shield and my refuge.  Now he is saying we will prepare a feast for me.  When someone is preparing a meal for us, they are not usually stressed out about it.  They don’t worry about all the things going on around them.  Picture this: there is chaos all around you, and yet in front of you is this beautifully set up dining room table.  You have a seat, and God is bringing you a feast, one course at a time.  He is not concerned with your enemies because He knows they can’t touch you.  You are not concerned either because you just feel so at home, so taken care of.  Isn’t that a beautifully relaxing image?  

Next, the verse says that God honors us by anointing our heads with oil.  Did you know that you have an anointing in your life?  We all do. Did you know through your baptism you were anointed to be priest, prophet, and king?   It’s true, just as Christ was all three of these, you are also anointed to be these three things to your community.  What does that mean for us?  

Let’s start with the priest.  Drawing on the priesthood of the Old Testament, a priest is one who offers sacrifices (see Genesis 14:18; Exodus 29:38- 42; Leviticus 23:6,8). Some sacrifices are personal, and some are on behalf of others. These sacrifices will look different for each one of us, depending on our circumstances.  However, sacrifice, to some degree, should be a part of our everyday life.  I have tried to embrace this a little more this year, so I am fasting from one thing each month.  I will switch it up each month, but there will always be something I am fasting from.  I think this will help me to appreciate things more and it will also show me that I am not a slave to that thing.  For instance, if I feel like I just can’t stop eating chocolate, then I will fast from that for a month.  By the end of the year, I will have shown God and myself that I do not need these things.  I will have also made a small sacrifice each month for 12 months.

Next, we have a prophet.  A prophet is a spokesperson for God or one who speaks on God’s behalf (see Exodus 4:30; Deuteronomy 18:18; Isaiah 42:19). In the Old and New Testaments, prophets called people to a different way of life.  Can we be a spokesperson for God by how we live our lives?  Can we live in a way that when people see us, they think to themselves, “I want what they have?”  Can we call others to a different way of life, not necessarily with our words, but with our love?  Can we love others as Jesus did? Can we speak love and light into the world, into people’s lives?  Can we be prophets?

Lastly, we are anointed as kings.  What are kings called to do? Usually rule over others.  We are called to rule over ourselves first and foremost. We are all responsible for making sure we are living our lives according to God’s laws.  Most kings are called to rule over others; however, as Christians, we are called to servant leadership.  A servant leader leads by serving others. In other words, servant leaders place the interests and needs of their followers ahead of their own self-interests and needs. Generally, they value the development of their followers, building their communities, acting authentically, and sharing power.

Now that we know what each one of these means, hopefully, we can apply this to our everyday life.  God has anointed us in our everyday tasks, too.  For instance, I was anointed to be a mother and a wife.  That was where God called me, and that is what He set me apart to do.  Maybe you are anointed to be a doctor, a lawyer, a pharmacy tech, a garbage collector, a grandmother, a teacher, whatever it is, God has anointed you to do it.  Your baptismal anointing is not meant to replace any of those other calls on your life.  You are anointed to be a priest, prophet, and king in the life you are already living.  Think about your day-to-day life; how can you incorporate sacrifice into your days?  How can you be more of a prophet spreading the Lord’s Word in your daily lives?  How can you be more of a servant leader right now, right where you are?

The verse then goes on to say my cup overflows with blessings.  This is also great imagery.  I love to picture a teacup as we grew up drinking tea in my family.  Although I don’t picture a regular tea cup, the image I am getting is an English fancy tea cup from a china set.  The tea is being poured into it with a steady stream, and the cup is overflowing and running all over the table and even onto the floor.  This is how many blessings God has for you. He wants to rain down blessings upon blessings on all of His children.  Sometimes, we get in the way of God’s blessings.  Sometimes, we don’t appreciate the blessings that we have, so why would God give us more?  Sometimes, we find ourselves complaining about all that is going on in our lives instead of praising God and giving thanksgiving.  God has ridiculous blessings for you.  All you have to do is believe that and then praise God for any blessings, even if they are small.  If you can be faithful to the small, He will increase your blessings.  He is a good, good Father!

The ending of this verse is beautiful.  “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.”  We had this word pursue the other day.  I love that word.  This verse is saying that God’s goodness and unfailing love will pursue us all the days of our lives.  Isn’t that wonderful?  We don’t have to chase after God because He is already chasing after us.  All we have to do is let ourselves be caught by God’s goodness and unfailing love.  Unfailing love is not like any love we can find here on earth.  It is an incredible love that knows no limits, that knows no boundaries.  God’s love never leaves us.  No matter how much we may try to run from it.  No matter how much we try to reject it or send it back.  No matter how much we might mess up.  God’s unfailing love will pursue you every single day of your life.  How incredible is that?  

And the very last part of the verse says, “I will live in the house of the Lord forever.”  Yes, please!  I want to live in the house of the Lord forever. I think we all do.  It is so amazing to me that God has an open-door policy to heaven.  All are welcome.  Come as you are in your broken and wounded state.  You do not have to earn your way. You don’t have to do anything to get there.  Jesus has earned you your right to be there.  All you have to do is surrender to God and let Him help you. Let Him give you the strength to follow Him.  Following God is not always an easy road but it is a rewarding road and one that leads to spending eternity living in the house of the Lord.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening today.  Lord, we thank you for loving us like you do.  We thank you for preparing us for a feast in the presence of our enemies.  We thank you for the ridiculous blessings you want to give us, and we are sorry if we get in your way of doing that.  We thank you for anointing us priests, prophets, and kings, and we ask for your help in discovering what that means for each one of us and how we can incorporate that anointing into our lives.  We love you, Lord, and we can’t wait to live in your house forever!  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name. Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I hope to see you this evening on mentoring. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember Jesus loves you and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in August 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My children, I call you by name. I know each and every one of you. Let your light shine so that you can help remove the darkness.”

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I Am Not A Mistake

Psalm 139:13 “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”

God created everything about us.  I like this verse, though, because it reminds us that He created even our inmost being.  I like the visual of God knitting me together.  One stitch at a time.  I am not someone who knits, but I have family and friends that do.  When you are knitting something you can make it look however you want to.  If you are the person doing it, you get to pick the colors, you get to pick the pattern, and you even get to pick which stitch or combination of stitches you are going to use.  You are the creator of whatever you are knitting.  

Now, imagine that God is knitting you together.  He chose all the specifics about you.  He got to choose what color hair you have and what color eyes you have.  Do you ever take time to think about this, to think about the fact that God created everything about you?  I was at a personal development conference this week, so that may be why it is on my mind more than usual.  I love attending these conferences because it is so great to be gathered in a room with like-minded people.  I don’t mean that we all think the same way or even believe the same things, but in this instance, we were all there because we knew God had a bigger plan for our lives, and we wanted to figure out what that plan was.  

It was an amazing weekend, and I learned so much.  This happened to be a women’s conference, and there were so many women gathered together, all wanting to improve themselves in some way or another.  This is a beautiful thing.  One of the things that usually comes up when you have so many women gathered together is the idea of insecurities.  Insecurities are something that I believe everyone has.  We don’t all have them about the same things or to the same extent, but I do think we are all insecure about something.  We all have that one thing, or some of us have more than one thing that we wish we could change about ourselves.  That thing that we really don’t like about ourselves.  Some of these things affect our lives in a big way, and some do not.

When you look at yourself and your life, what are your insecurities?  What are the things about you that you don’t like that may be getting in your way of living your best life?  Maybe you are struggling because you are living the life that everyone around you wants you to live, but inside, you feel like it's not right for you.  For instance, you have a really good job, and you are making good money, but in your heart, you really want to be doing something else.  Maybe you have insecurities based on your appearance.  This is a big one with women.  We feel too tall, too short, too thin, too fat.  Or we feel our hair is too long, too short, too light, too dark.  It seems like no one is happy in their own skin these days.  

I wonder why this is.  I wonder if people throughout the ages have always felt like this or if this is new.  I don’t think it is new that people don’t like something about themselves.  I am sure that has always probably been a thing.  However, I wonder if it was as widespread and commonplace as it is today.  I am not sure if I know a single woman who is so happy with her appearance that she wouldn’t change anything if you asked.  I wonder if all this unhappiness has to do with social media and marketing.  Once upon a time, before TV, magazines, movies, etc., you didn’t have so much access to everything.  You could compare yourself to those who lived around you, and maybe those in paintings or in books.  However, you didn’t have the kind of access you have today.  

Today, you could spend five minutes online and you could scroll through hundreds of images of whatever you want to look at.  Also, if you have social media, you can just scroll down your feed, and you will see plenty of posts from people.  The internet can be a very dangerous place for those who have insecurities and are looking for proof that those insecurities are real.  If you think you are too heavy and then you search for proof of that online, you will find it.  That is how the internet works.  You ask a question and it searches all the data and gives you an answer to the question that you just asked it.  Your brain is the same.  If you have an insecurity and you ask your brain to find proof of it, your brain will.  The awesome thing about your brain is that the opposite is also true.  If you ask your brain to prove to you that your insecurity is not true, it will do that as well.  For instance, if you ask your brain why no one at work likes you, it will search all your memories and come up with reasons why your co-workers don’t like you.  However, if you ask your brain to prove to you that people at your work do like you, your brain will come up with an answer to that question as well.  If you do not like the answers you are coming up with then you need only ask better questions.  

The main speaker at the conference said something this weekend, and I think it would be great if everyone in the world heard it.  She said that when she was sitting in the audience at her first personal development conference, she had a realization wash over her.  She felt it was divine intervention.  The realization was, “What if I was on purpose?  What if God made me exactly like I am for a reason?”  I think this is so important because I think so many of us feel like there is some part of us that is wrong.  We feel like we would be better if that part of us didn’t exist.  I always wished that I wasn’t so emotional.  I have thought this more times than I can count.  I cry at happy things, I cry at sad things, I cry at spiritual things, I cry for someone else’s happy times and someone else’s pain.  I am just a mess sometimes.  I always thought this was a character flaw.  However, now I know that God gave me that ability.  I don’t know why He made me that way, but God doesn’t make mistakes.  So, there must be a reason.  

The same goes for you.  You are not a mistake. You were made on purpose.  God knew what he was doing.  He designed each part of you for a reason.  He pays attention to detail.  How would your life be different if you could hear this and really take it in?  How would you feel about yourself if the next time you started to feel insecure about something, you reminded yourself that God made you this way on purpose?  You are perfect, just as you are.  You are loved just as you are.  You are enough just as you are.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, help us to see ourselves through your eyes. Help us to see everyone through your eyes. Lord, help remind us when we feel insecure that you made us on purpose.  Remind us, Lord, that you created our inmost being. You knit us together perfectly and completely. And if you made us on purpose, Lord, then that means we can't be a mistake. That means our hopes and desires aren't a mistake. That means our character isn't a mistake.  We love you, Lord Jesus, and we thank you for making us who we are, and we ask that you help us learn to love who we are. We thank you for making us in your likeness and image. You are amazing, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Tomorrow is Week #4 for the Identity Series in Mentoring. If you have been enjoying the I Am series in the podcast, you will really enjoy mentoring, where we go deeper into who God says we are. When you join, you will have access to all previous weeks as well. Click on the link below to check out mentoring and see if it is right for you!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in July 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Stop, my children, and think. You've been set apart. You are separated from many because I have a plan for this body to be my honorable presence in the lives of others. Go forth and be the word.”

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