Walk Boldly With Jesus

I Am Healed (Identity Series)

Isaiah 53:5 “But he was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes us whole; by his wounds, we were healed.”  

I love talking about the Lord’s healing.  I love talking about it because it is so amazing and also because I am not sure people believe He is still healing today.  I was at the Encounter Ministries Boston Campus’ summer intensive Tuesday night.  That night, the topic was the Prophetic Word.  Wednesday night was going to be all about physical healing.  I was talking with a friend from the prayer group at this event and her neck was really bothering her.  She mentioned she would have to have the girls from the prayer group pray over her the next night at the healing service.  I told her we didn’t have to wait until tomorrow, let's do it now.  Just then, one of our teachers came up to us, so she joined in as well.  We prayed a few times with little change.  Then my teacher asked my friend if she believed Jesus could heal her right now.  My friend said absolutely!  My teacher said, “Pain be gone now!” We were praying quietly for a minute and my friend said, “Wait a minute,” and she tried to move her neck all around in circles and side to side.  She said the pain was all gone!  Praise God. 

God is still healing people today.  He is miraculously healing people quickly and He is also miraculously healing people over time.  For instance, someone Tony works with had a stroke and was not expected to recover.  Now, 2-3 months later, he is leaving rehab and going home.  Is he 100% healed yet? No, but I truly believe he will get there.  Not every healing God does is instantaneous and also He does not heal everyone that we ask Him to heal.  I am not sure why this is.  When I ask Him He always tells me, “His ways are higher than my ways, and His thoughts higher than my thoughts.”  We aren’t meant to understand everything He does in this world.  

Aside from physical healing, what I feel the Lord wants me to remind you of today is that he heals us from our sins and our brokenness.  Because of original sin, we had a brokenness about us. We live in a very broken world, and yet we don’t have to be broken.  God died for our sins so that we could be healed.  God wants us to live in that light. He wants us to realize our identity in Christ and not continue to live with this idea that we are broken.  Yes, the world is a broken place. There are many broken people, but we don't have to be one of those broken people.  We know Christ, and we can be in a relationship with Him. The verse above is very graphic. “But he was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes us whole; by his wounds, we were healed.”  He was pierced for our sins. Take a minute and think about that.  Picture the Roman soldiers hammering nails into his hands.  Think about how much that must have hurt.  Then it says He was crushed for our iniquity.  Take a moment to think about the scourging.  Think about how much that must have hurt.  How much He must have wanted to scream out in pain.  I wonder if he wanted to say, “But it wasn’t me, I didn’t do it?”  He was not being scourged because of anything He did.  He took on our sins and our broken relationship with the Father and died on that cross so we could be free.  

What just came to my mind was that there is no way to repay Jesus for what He did for us.  There is no way to repay the debt that He paid for our sins, and He doesn’t want us to.  Jesus has forgiven that debt to Him.  He saved us, knowing we would still sin.  He saved us, knowing we would turn away probably 100 times before we got it right.  I don’t think this bothers Him as much as it does when we don’t accept His forgiveness.  When we don’t live in the freedom that He sacrificed to gain for us.  Jesus died so you could be healed.  You, yes, You!  

You, who are going through an abusive relationship right now.  You, who are living with or dealing with an addict right now, You who are getting a divorce, You who can’t have children, You who are struggling to parent the children you do have.  Jesus died for each one of us, and He wants us to live in that freedom.  He is there to help us through our circumstances.  He is there to lift us up when we need Him too.  All we need to do is to lean into Him.

He died to heal us, but we are the ones that need to accept that healing.  It’s kinda like if we had an illness and there was a medicine that could cure our illness, and yet we refused to take the medicine.  The medicine is sitting right there on the counter, right next to the water, and yet we refuse to take it because we don’t believe it will help.  We believe that our illness is worse than the doctor said it was.  We know that medicine can’t possibly help us because our case is too severe.  Does that sound silly to you?  Are you rolling your eyes and wondering why I think I know more than the doctor does?  

The same is true for us and our forgiveness of sins.  Jesus died so our sins could be forgiven, so we could be healed physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  Jesus was repairing the relationship with our heavenly Father that original sin had broken.  He died for you.  Yes, he died for all of us, but He also died for each of us individually.  If you were the only person on Earth, He still would have gone through all of that for you.  Jesus knows what we have done.  He knows what we will do.  He did not die on the cross for some of our sins. He died on the cross for all of our sins.  There is nothing you can do that He won’t forgive.  There is nothing that has happened to you that He can’t heal.

When we do something and then don’t accept forgiveness for it, we are offending the Lord.  We are telling Him that His sacrifice was not enough.  Is this what you believe?  Do you believe that Jesus dying on the cross was not a big enough sacrifice to cover whatever it was that you did or that was done to you?  It does not make you greedy to accept God’s sacrifice.  It does not make you greedy to accept the forgiveness that God offers.  His forgiveness is freely given.  You don’t have to do anything to deserve it or to earn it.  It is already yours through your baptism.  He had you and your sins, your troubles in mind when He was on that cross.  Accept the healing.  Accept the forgiveness of sins.

One thing that has helped me accept God’s Word into my heart is to personalize it to me.  I will put my name in or switch words from “our” to “my”.  Sometimes, we believe scripture is true.  We just don’t think it applies to us for some reason or another. Here is how I might read this scripture if I was struggling to believe it was for me personally.  “But he was pierced for my sins, crushed for my iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes me whole; by his wounds, I, Catherine, was healed.”  If you struggle to believe, you are healed.  If you struggle to believe all your sins, yes, even that one can be forgiven.  If you struggle to believe Jesus died for you personally and individually, I ask you to write this scripture down on a sticky note and place it on your computer, your bathroom mirror, your shower, or wherever you will see it daily.  Make it personal and put it in your own name.  Even just changing the “our” to “my” will really change the feel of it.  “But he was pierced for my sins, crushed for my iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes me whole, by his wounds I, Catherine, was healed.” You can add your name, or just take the name out.  Whichever feels best for you.  Jesus loves you, He died for you, don’t lessen that sacrifice by refusing to accept the healing that comes from it.  You are healed, all you need to do is live into that healing!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we love you and we accept your forgiveness.  We accept your healing.  Please help us.  Lord, we ask that you come into our hearts and minds and clear any blocks we might have in accepting your healing and forgiveness.  Lord, we give you permission to work on our hearts please soften them.  We love you Lord, we are so grateful you sent your son to heal us and we are sorry if we haven’t been accepting that healing.  Lord we can do nothing without you and yet all things with you.  Please help us.  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 look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Remember Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

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, “My beloved, I am yours and you are mine. Come away with me so I can speak to your heart. Come away with me into that intimate place where I can speak to your heart alone. Come with me, my beloved. I want to fill you with my joy, my love, and my mercy.”

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I Am Courageous (Identity Series)

Joshua 1:9 “I command you: be strong and steadfast! Do not fear nor be dismayed, for the Lord, your God, is with you wherever you go.”

Today is another verse that tells us who God created us to be.  God created us to be strong and steadfast.  Do you know what steadfast means?  Steadfast means resolutely firm and unwavering.  This verse is telling us that we can be courageous because God is with us wherever we go.  God is telling us in this verse that we don’t have to fear anything and we don’t have to be dismayed.  God tells us not to fear quite often in the Bible.  The phrase “fear not” is in the Bible 365 times.  That is one time for each day of the year.  I think this is something that God wants us to get and yet we still all struggle with it.  

I can’t think of a single person who is not afraid of something.  I think if we took the bravest person we know we would still discover they were afraid of something.  There are people who are afraid of everything, there are people who are afraid of almost nothing and then there are those in between.  Even if someone says they aren’t afraid of anything I bet if you asked them if they were afraid something might happen to their children, their pets, or any of their loved ones, I bet most would say yes.  If you asked them if they were afraid of not being able to provide for their family I bet most would say yes.  We are all afraid of something.  I think this is why the Lord has said “fear not” so many times in the Bible.  

He is still saying it to His people today.  He is saying it to you and me. We are constantly getting words of prophecy at prayer group that tell us not to be afraid and that God is with us.  Here are several words that we have received, and these all came within the same month.  I would love for you to listen to these words as if your heavenly Father was saying them to you personally.  Also, if any of them stand out to you or you feel like they are speaking to you pause the episode and write them down.  I pray that God speaks to each one of you through these words.  I pray that He highlights at least one of these for each individual person listening.  All of these either speak to us not being afraid or they explain how and why we know God is with us.  

I just got the feeling that we don't need to fear because He is the one that is in charge and He will make things happen in whatever way that He wants. He keeps telling us we're not God He is God.  He is saying He can use whoever He wants. Whoever is willing to be used he can use.

You are the anointing I send to the world my children. Smile that I send you. I send each of you. Be not afraid I am with you. My spirit will speak through you the words that I wish you to say. Just be the anointing I wish you to be. All can be. When I say you can, don't tell me you can't. Praise me, praise me, praise me, my children. Smile that today I send you.

I watch over you, my children. All of you are my children. I break the sword of the enemy who would come against you. You have nothing to fear for I am there for each and every one of you in each and every trial. I will never forsake my children or leave my children. I will defend you in battle. I have sent you the power of the Spirit and He will give you all that you need to do what you have been called to do.

My children take my hand. Realize that I am with you. Go into the world without fear. I am holding onto your hand. There is no need to fear I am your God. I will protect you, I will defend you. Smile that you are mine. Smile my children. I am with you till the end of time. Come closer my children, come closer so that I can reveal my mysteries to you so you in turn can share them with the world. I am your Lord, I am your God and I am all-powerful. I hold onto your hand. Move forward, move forward with joy for you are mine.

My children you are like little sheep. You wander off for that next patch of juicy grass and I call you back. You wander over the top of the hill and you get caught in the briars and I find you. I know where your traps are. I will always search for you. I will always find you and I will always bring you back. But I ask you frequently, many times, to look over your shoulder and check on me to make sure you are near me. Often during the day look at me, listen for me, watch me. Stay near me and you will grow strong and healthy and you'll be my cherished one and you will do my will.

This verse came to mind as we are praying and all I could see is the real fullness of God's glory. He doesn't give us dim glory, He gives us blazing glory.  He doesn't give us a weak Spirit, He gives us a courageous Spirit. He doesn't give us a dim light, He gives us a blazing light to bring to this world that God is so great and so full and he shares ALL of his fullness with us. With Him there's plenteous redemption so let's not just expect little let's expect a lot, more than our minds can possibly comprehend because He is big.

And my children, my darlings you think you are what your roles in life have made you be. You think you are what people have called you and told you you were. But please come to me in prayer and silence and listen to what I call you. I call you beloved, cherished, friend, child. You are my sheep, you are precious. You are my warriors, you are my disciples, you are my voice in the world right now, you are my hands, you are my feet. You have such a noble call and you don't realize it. You have so much power at your disposal and you don't use it. Don't be stuck in what the world has told you but be liberated in what I tell you.

Wow, those were all-powerful.  What I feel the Holy Spirit telling me right now is to leave you with those so you can read through them or re-listen to them again.  There is so much in there and yet I feel the Holy Spirit is saying that we don’t have to focus, understand or read through all of it.  Listen again and see what stands out to you.  There is plenty in there that speaks to the fact God made us courageous.  Which word speaks to you the most?  Which one did you really need to hear today?  I would love it if you would reach out to me through an email at [email protected] or through social media and let me know which of the words from our heavenly Father touched you the most today.  You are courageous because you have the Lord God almighty right there by your side every step of the way!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Wow, Lord, you are amazing.  After all these years, I still cannot get over the fact that you want to talk to your children.  When I think about all the ways we turn away from you and all the terrible ways we treat you, I would think you would want to ignore us.  You not only take care of us and protect us, but you also want to have a relationship with us.  Those were some pretty powerful words you gave to the prayer group and that you gave to me to share with everyone.  I pray everyone listening truly hears Your words and I pray they find a home in their hearts.  I pray they don’t just hear them with their ears, I pray they hear them with their heart, mind, and soul. I pray there is something for everyone in those words above.  I pray people listen and re-listen to them until they become a part of them.  I pray they copy them down from the show notes and re-read them anytime they feel they need to be courageous or they need the reminder that they are not alone and you are right there with them.  

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. We had our first session of the Identity Series in mentoring on Tuesday, and it was great. If you would like to join us for week two, there is a link for mentoring below. You can always check out my website, too, at walkboldlywithjesus.com.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

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, “I will carry you in your trials, and I will party with you in your celebrations. Lean on me. I am constant.”

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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 God Stories 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.

Brande: I have been dealing with back problems for a while and couldn’t figure out what was going on. I was overweight so I thought that maybe that was the problem. But the more weight I lost the worse my pain became.

In April of this year, I had an MRI done and found out I have Degenerative Disc Disease, Arthritis and Spinal Stenosis. I also have a tear in one of my discs and my L5 is pushing on my S1.

So, in July I had an injection, and it didn’t work. I went back to the doctor in August, and he had set up another injection for Sept 20th. But a week before, the doctor office called and said that my insurance would not approve another injection until I see the nurse practitioner. After I hung up the phone that day, I was upset. We were busy at work, and I was in a lot of pain. After work, I sat in my car and cried, feeling defeated. I wanted to give up.

Then, as I was driving home from work, “Don’t Stop Praying” come on and I started bawling. I knew that was God telling me not to stop praying.

I shared this at church, and someone there works for SSDI. She called me and helped me start the process of filling for that assistance.

I know this is all an answer to my prayers. That song means more to me than anyone could ever imagine not just for this situation but others as well.

My name is Suzie, and this is my testimony of God’s strength.

Three months ago, I was faced with a dark season. This is a season I never asked for and never thought in a million years I would ever have to go through. I was lied to, and almost broken. My heart was shattered, and I felt numb to everything. I had no clue how this could happen. How could someone who is supposed to be my life partner do something like this?

Being a recovering alcoholic, I could have easily fallen back to drinking to forget everything that was happening. But instead, I choose to turn to God, my Bible, and my pastor. You could say I choose the high road instead of the lonely, dead-end road. I thought I was doing well, and I was trying my hardest to keep my head up and be as strong as I could. Yet, it hurt, and I was emotionally tired. In reality, I was spiraling and not doing well at all. I felt like I was in tunnel vision and couldn’t get out. I then took the first step in healing by admitting to myself I needed help and reached out to talk with a counselor. Admitting out loud that I needed help emotionally and mentally and that I was not ok, was a huge step in getting through this. In all this

I was getting signs that I needed to let go of everything I was holding onto. Which I really thought I had done. But in truth I was not listening to what God was saying to me. Until one Saturday morning.  I got a message from a friend checking in on me to see how I was doing. After talking with her I felt God telling me I need to let go of everything I am holding on to so I could start to really heal. So, I said a simple prayer that morning before getting ready for the day. After saying the prayer, God started working in my heart. During different times throughout the day, I wanted to leave where I was. But God said “No, you need to stay put. You need to be with others around you.” I soon realized I was right where I need to be, and I am stronger than I realized.   I also realized that I was truly holding onto some parts, and I needed to let go and let God work through me to heal.

I am blessed beyond words that I have an awesome support system that knows when I am having a rough time or trying to fake it. I realize that I don’t have to be strong all the time. It’s ok for me to show my emotions and show that I am human. And it’s “ok” to not be “ok” and most importantly it’s “ok” to have bad days.

I am thankful to God and His guidance and the love He has shown me. He has put people in my path through all of this storm for one reason or another. I am grateful for the little reminders He is showing me to keep my head up. I know my path of healing is going to be a long journey and it is not going to be easy. There are going to be tough days and easy days. If it was meant to be easy, then it wouldn’t be called a storm. I am ready to see what God has in store for me no matter how long it takes.

Psalm 27:14 “Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.”

Thank you all for sharing your stories. I know it can be hard to be vulnerable and share what you have gone through. Yet, when we do, it helps others who are in a similar circumstance know there is hope that the same can happen for them. Please continue sharing your story.

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I Am Whole (Identity Series)

Colossians 2:9-10 “ For in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity bodily,  and you share in this fullness in him, who is the head of every principality and power.”

This episode will conclude our “I am who God says I am” series. I am whole is a struggle for many to believe. We have all sinned before; we all sin frequently, probably. It can be easy for us to think that sin makes us less than especially if we have had a really difficult past. Maybe we have had a lot of relationships in the past, and we didn’t show up as our best selves in them. Maybe we haven’t had a lot of relationships, but we have slept with a lot of other people. I think many people in this society feel used. I think we feel used by the other sex, used by our bosses, and used by big companies to sell more products. There is just this brokenness instead of the feeling that we are whole.

What just popped into my mind was all the teenagers right now and how easy it is to feel broken when you are a teen. You don’t look the right way, your hair isn’t perfect, your clothes aren’t perfect. Life can be really hard when you are young. A therapist told me the other day that 15 was the most volatile age for emotions. At this age, you feel your emotions more intensely than you ever will again. Our minds are so easily persuaded by the enemy. Why is it so much easier to believe the negative than it is to believe the positive?

I read a great article about this called “Finding Spiritual Wholeness" by Leanne Payne. Click Here for the article.  I recommend you read the whole thing. What Leanne was talking about in this article is that God is perfectly whole, and we are made in his likeness and image. She said, “When “sin” (That which is against God’s character) entered the world, so did our brokenness, along with our broken ideas about how we view ourselves, God, and others.  There is an intuitive knowledge of our personal brokenness that we are constantly attempting to fix, deny, or protect.” Isn’t this so true? We are always trying to fix, deny, or protect our brokenness.

You might be wondering why anyone would want to protect their brokenness. I have talked with plenty of people who want to protect their brokenness because they have become comfortable with that brokenness. They have lived with that brokenness, so they have come to identify as a broken person. Changing that image would be hard and not something they believe they can do. One thing we don’t realize is that life is hard. Yes, it is hard to change, and yet, isn’t living a sinful life also hard? Eating healthy can be hard, yet isn’t being overweight and struggling to get around hard, too? Standing up to our loved ones and putting boundaries in place is hard, yet so is living without those boundaries in place. Quitting vaping is hard, yet so is living life addicted to nicotine and not being able to concentrate because you are thinking about the next time when you will get to hit your vape.

The article I read talked about how sin distorts how we look at things. Here are a few examples she gave: 

Sin perverts our perception of God: 

God is angry with me - “He hates my sin, he must hate me.”

God is disgusted with me - "I’m too dirty and damaged for Him to accept me” 

God is distant from me - “Why would he want to be with me when I’m like this?”

God is unfair - “This is just one big setup...I couldn’t stop if I tried.”

God is unhappy - “All the fun things are off limits!”

Sin warps our self-perception: 

We become foolishly great in our own eyes when we hide from the reality of our sin, like the emperor with no clothes.

We become worth - less in our own eyes when we become hyper-focused on our sins.

Sin degrades or elevates (to unhealthy levels) our perception of others: 

We tend to do the same thing with other people that we do with ourselves - We make them out to be greater or less than we are.  We serve them like gods or treat them like dogs.

Payne goes on to say, "Sin brings disintegration of self while righteousness (living congruently with the character of God) brings integration of self or spiritual wholeness.  This is one reason God hates sin so much - He doesn’t want our disintegration because He loves us!  It must be said that any and all “righteous living” apart from God doesn’t get us to wholeness; it gets us to self-righteousness - a horrible disease that many Christians live with and perpetrates on others.”

Now that we have talked about why we think we are not whole let's look at what makes us whole. Do our actions determine if we are whole? Nope! Payne says, “Spiritual wholeness is not dependent on our actions but on an acceptance of God’s acting on our part in the life/death/resurrection of Christ.  Because of our faith in Christ and what He’s done on our behalf, God can pronounce us whole and remain a just God even though we often go on acting broken.” Jesus died to make us whole again. He took our sins to the cross with Him. We are no longer broken. Yes, we still act like we are broken at times, yet God has redeemed us and made us whole.

So, if God has redeemed us and made us whole, why don’t we feel whole? I think we don’t feel whole because we struggle to believe that He can forgive us for what we have done. We don’t accept that forgiveness for ourselves. We will be the first ones to convince a friend or loved one that Jesus loves and forgives ALL their sins; we just struggle to believe He will do it for us. I talked with a woman recently who had been to confession about a time in her life when she wasn’t proud of how she was living. Even though she had been to confession, the enemy was still not letting her move past it. She kept thinking about it and believing that she was her past mistakes. She believed that she was stuck in her past. Things won’t change because she is still that person. She wasn’t believing in the healing that took place during confession.

So many of us do this same thing. We believe we are our past mistakes. We believe if we did it once we will do it again. We struggle to believe things will change, and we struggle to believe that God could forgive us. To reiterate what the author of the article said, “Spiritual wholeness is not dependent on our actions but on an acceptance of God’s acting on our part in the life/death/resurrection of Christ.” It is not our actions that make us whole; it is Jesus’ actions. Jesus knew when He decided to die on that cross for us that we would keep sinning. He didn’t die for us because we were blameless or because He knew we were going to stop sinning. He died for us to make us whole, and His sacrifice was complete.

The verse above says, “  For in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity bodily, and you share in this fullness in him, who is the head of every principality and power.” We were made in the likeness and image of God.  We share in the fullness of Him.  However, when sin entered the world, so did our brokenness.  God sent His only son to repair that.  He died on the cross to make us whole, let’s live our lives in honor of that. Let’s live into this truth that we are whole. We are no longer broken. Christ made us whole!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we love you and we thank you for giving us your son to die on the cross so we could be made whole. Help us to live in that wholeness, Lord. Help us to accept your forgiveness and help us make it more about you than about us. Help us to stop listening to the enemy. Help us to be strong enough to reject his stupid lies. Open our eyes to his lies and give us the strength to renounce them and take away any authority they have. Lord, when we believe the lies, we empower the liar. We are done empowering the liar, Lord. We want you to be the only one that has any power in our lives. We love you, Lord, 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. Tonight is our first night in the Identity series. I hope you will join us! Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed weekend!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 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, “Listen, all you need is to be quiet and hear me. My children, all your thoughts are not your own. Some come from the devil. Discard them. You know right from wrong. Remember, always remember me and what I've done for the love of all of you. I love you. Keep going, my Christian soldiers.”

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I am Forgiven

1 John 2:12 “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven on account of his name.”

I decided to stick with some of the verses from the “I Am Who God Says I Am” Challenge from my Big Life mentoring group.  I have talked about many of the verses; however, the next one that I had not talked about before is 2 John 2:12. I particularly liked this one because I am not sure this is one that most of us would agree with.  Do you believe you are forgiven?  I recently learned something that I thought was so interesting.  I was at a meeting, and we were talking about the difference between Redemption and Salvation.  

The way they explained it was to picture that you are in jail.  Redemption means someone has been paid for your freedom.  This means you have been redeemed.  You are now free to go, free to leave the jail in which you were held captive. However, the salvation doesn’t come until you leave the prison. You need to be the one to accept that redemption and walk out of the door.  That is the hard part, that is the part that we struggle with a lot.  We might understand on some level that Jesus died for the sins of the world, and yet we struggle to believe that he died for our sins in particular.  

Do you believe that Jesus died for your sins?  Do you believe there is nothing you can do that won’t be forgiven if you repent?  Do you believe you don’t have to earn your forgiveness?  This is something else that we struggle with.  We think we have to be good enough to be forgiven.  We mess up, and then we think we need to fix everything before we turn to the Lord and ask for forgiveness.  This couldn’t be further from the truth. There is nothing you have to do to be forgiven other than to be sorry for what you have done.  You can’t earn your forgiveness, Jesus already paid the price for you.  He paid a high price, and when we try to earn our forgiveness, we are essentially saying what He paid wasn’t enough.

Father Mike was just talking about this idea of earning our forgiveness the other day on the Catechism in a Year podcast when he was talking about the sacrament of reconciliation.  When Catholics go to confession, we confess our sins, we say we are sorry to God for having sinned against Him, we receive absolution for our sins, and then the priest gives us penance.  Sometimes, when we get penance, we think that it is not severe enough.  For instance, we confess we committed a mortal sin, and the priest says that we should say 5 Hail Marys and 5 Our Fathers.  We don’t see how that could possibly atone for our sins.  That’s the thing: we are not atoning for our sins, our forgiveness is freely given to us because Jesus died on the cross.  He already atoned for our sins.  Penance is meant to help us turn our hearts back to God. Just as our sin was an active choice of turning away from God, penance is an active choice of turning back to God.

What penance is meant to do is to help us get back on track.  In an ideal world, your penance would have something to do with what you were struggling with at the time of confession. For instance, if you are struggling with being kind to your family, your penance might be to say three kind things to each one of them before going to bed that night.  If you are struggling with pride, your penance might be, to say, the Litany of Humility.  This would be in an ideal world. However, there are not enough priests, and the priest might not always be able to come up with a creative penance that has to do with your specific struggle or your specific sins.  If you are given a penance that doesn’t seem to “fit the crime,” so to speak, remember that you are not earning your forgiveness; you are not trying to buy it, it has already been purchased for you.  I read an article about doing penance after confession, and it said, “Just as sin wounds (or breaks) our relationship with God and makes our souls sick, penance is medicine that helps us turn our hearts back towards our Creator. Confession removes that sin from our shoulders. Penance helps us move towards a more holy future."

The verse above says that our sins are forgiven on account of his name.” I mentioned earlier that sometimes we think we need to fix things before we confess what we have done.  We think we need to be perfect before we approach God and tell Him what we have done.  Romans 5:8 tells us, “But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  He didn’t wait till we stopped sinning.  He didn’t wait until we had all our ducks in a row, He didn’t wait until we had life all figured out.  He died for our sins while we were still sinners.  This shows us how much God loves us and also shows us that He doesn’t want us to wait until we are perfect because that day will never come.  God told Paul that His power is made perfect in our weakness.  

We think we need to be perfect for God, and yet God doesn’t require that of us.  He would rather we come to Him in our weakness and our brokenness.  If we are perfect, we don’t need God.  If we could do it all ourselves, we wouldn’t need God.  God is not there to watch us do all the work ourselves and then forgive us or love us after we have figured it all out.  He is there to help us figure it out.  He is there to guide us and to lead us in the right direction.  We can’t change the really hard stuff without God’s help.  We can’t forgive others without God helping us change our hearts.  We can want to forgive, and yet God is the one who is in charge of the conversion of hearts.  He is the one who forgives us and helps us forgive others.  We need him all along the process.  

The one thing I want to leave you with today is that your sins were forgiven when Jesus died on that cross.  You don’t have to earn your forgiveness; you just have to accept it.  You have to walk in that freedom that comes with forgiveness.  If God has forgiven your sins and yet you are still walking around in a prison of your past mistakes, then what do you think that says to the Lord?  It says that you don’t believe Jesus’ sacrifice was enough to cover your sins.  It says you think you know more than God does because He has said you are forgiven, and you aren’t accepting that forgiveness.  God has already paid your debt; He has already unlocked the door to your prison, all you have to do is walk out the door and live in that freedom.  Can you do that today?  Can you finally walk out of your prison and accept God’s forgiveness?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we love you, and we ask you to help us accept your forgiveness.  We are tired of living in our own prisons Lord, show us the way out.  Change our hearts and our minds so we can accept that you love us so much that you sent your only son to die for our sins, even while we were still sinning.  Help us to walk in that freedom you bought for us.  Help us to forgive others as well.  You are the best Lord, 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.  I want to remind everyone that mentoring starts back up tomorrow night. The theme for January is Identity, and it is one that we all need to hear. I hope you will prayerfully consider joining me. There is a link below with all the details.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 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 want my children to be still. Quiet yourselves so that you can hear me. I do put people situations and circumstances on your hearts and in your past. Don't discard my urgings. Do as I ask. I know that you hear me. I have made it so that you do.”

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I Am Accepted by Christ

Romans 15:7 “Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.”

I thought this one was especially important for us to know because it is one that might be hard for us to believe. It is also something that we are all desperately searching for. We all want to be accepted. We all need to be accepted. Sometimes, we will go to extraordinary lengths to change who we are just to feel accepted. This is not the kind of acceptance that we want. I think we all wish, down deep in our hearts, that we could just be who we truly are. Yet, we feel if we are our true selves, then we won’t be accepted. We fear to be ourselves because we worry that if we are, people will think we are too much or not enough.

They might say we are not kind enough, silly enough, joyful enough, pretty enough, or anything else we might struggle with. They may also say that we are too loud, too excited, too peppy, too old, too young. Whatever our insecurities are, whatever the enemy is whispering in our ear, that is what we fear people will think of us. I know for me, I always think I don’t make an impression. I sit more on the outside of the circle and observe. I am always surprised when someone says that they remember me or that I did something that touched them in some way. If you know me, that may seem weird to hear. I think we all have these inner thoughts that our loved ones would be surprised to know we felt.

I just read my word and mantra to a friend the other day. My mantra is a statement about who I want to be at the end of 2025, and I say it every day, well, at least all three days so far this year, to remind me of who I want to become. When I read it to my friend, she said it was funny to her because I already seemed like I was that person in her eyes. I understand what she means, as when I am talking to people and listening to their struggles, I am often surprised to learn what they are struggling with. Beautiful people who have no idea how beautiful they are. Kind people who have no idea how loved they are by others. Faith-filled people who have no idea what a beacon of light they are to others.

This tells me that the enemy’s lies are working, and we need to change the game. We need to stop listening to him and listen to our Heavenly Father and listen to our friends and family. Why do we dismiss what our friends and family say as if they are just saying what we want to hear? Can’t both things be true? Can what they say be true and what we want to hear? We need to be able to believe the good things more than the bad things. Why are the bad things so much easier to believe?

I pray at the end of this month you will start to believe some of the good things more than the bad things. I pray by the end of this month, you will begin to see yourself through the eyes of the Lord instead of through the eyes of this world.

When we look at today’s verse, it is twofold. It tells us we are accepted by the Lord, and it also tells us to accept others as He accepts us. Listen again, “Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.” When I looked this verse up on the Enduring Word website, this is what the pastor had to say:

Therefore, receive one another: (In other translations, it says to accept one another)  Instead of letting these issues about disputable things divide Christians (especially making a division between Jew and Gentile), we should receive one another just as Christ received us – in terms of pure grace, knowing yet bearing with our faults.

It goes on to say: Spurgeon on just as Christ also received us: “Christ did not receive us (or accept us) because we were perfect, because he could see no fault in us, or because he hoped to gain somewhat at our hands. Ah, no! But, in loving condescension covering our faults, and seeking our good, he welcomed us to his heart; so, in the same way, and with the same purpose, let us receive one another.”

God doesn’t accept us because we are perfect. He doesn’t accept us because we are getting it all right, and we are doing all He asked us to do. None of us here on earth are getting it all right, or at least, not many of us. Most of us, even those who seem the more put together, are just doing the best we can. We all have things we struggle with and things we wish we could be better at. We all think everyone else is doing so much better than we are. They aren’t! We are all struggling. Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it is not there. Do you let everyone see your struggles? No, most of us hide our struggles. Although, do you know what makes the struggle easier? Sharing it with others makes it easier to carry because we aren’t doing it by ourselves. It also makes it easier because sometimes others can see our situation with new eyes and may shed some light on it.

You are accepted by Christ. You are also accepted by God. Some may think that is something I wouldn’t have to say. Of course, if Jesus accepts me, then God accepts me as they are one. However, for many of us, it is much easier to believe that Jesus is loving and accepting and God is not. Kind of like how your dad can be a loving and forgiving friend but not always a loving and forgiving dad. It is important that we start to see God as a loving Father. It is important that we stop letting the enemy tell us who God is and we look for ourselves. God loves us. He always has. If you look back over the Bible, you will find more stories of God’s love than of his judgment. Are there harsh stories in the Bible? Absolutely. Has God done some things that we don’t understand? Definitely, yet if we look at all the things God has done in the Bible, there will be way more good than what we perceive as bad.

Many of us find it very easy to believe that God accepts others. We can look at someone struggling with so much more than we might be struggling with, and we might tell them they are loved and accepted by God, and we believe it with our whole hearts. It is so much easier to believe that He accepts others with all their faults, and yet we just know He can’t accept us. We have too many faults. We have done too many bad things. We aren’t worthy. We aren’t enough. We haven’t earned His acceptance yet. If this is where you are at, you are not alone. So many of us, even those you look at and think they are so religious. They are struggling with knowing God loves them and accepts them, too.

There is so much I want to say to everyone who doesn’t believe God loves them. Those who don’t believe God accepts them for who they are, faults in all. There is so much I want to say, and yet I am not sure if you will be able to hear it all at once. The only one who can change our hearts is God, and although He can do that in an instant, it usually takes time. It takes time for our hearts to soften. It takes time for the wounds in our hearts to begin to heal. It takes time for us to begin to be open to the idea that God may love us and even like us. I know it takes time, and that is why I will keep talking about this all month long, and I pray each day your heart softens a little more to the idea of who you are in God’s eyes. Feel free to go back and listen to these episodes as many times as you need to in order to start to really believe who God says you are in His eyes. Listen until you really believe it!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode. Lord, we pray that you help soften our hearts to all the things we hear this month about our identity. Lord, we invite you to come in and heal our wounds. Lord, we ask that you allow us to see ourselves through your eyes, even if just for a moment. Lord, we ask that each day this month, our minds and ears open up a little more to hear who you say we are.  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 decided that after this month is over, I will compile all these episodes about who God says we are, and I will put them in a devotional book that I will publish on Amazon. That way, if you want to read them over and over again until you believe them, you can. Also, I encourage you to re-listen to any of them that you have a particularly hard time believing. Also, I did an “I Am” series a while back on the podcast. So, if you have trouble believing you are whole, healed, guided, strong, his, courageous, or forgiven, you can go back and listen to episodes 540-548. And remember, if you want to join me in mentoring this month, I will go deeper into who God says we are. Knowing our identity is important. There is a link for more info on mentoring below. God loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 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 the flame of love that runs through you, and I purify all that is not of me. Seek me more, seek me more each day.”

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 I Am A Friend Of Jesus

John 15:15 “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.”

This month in mentoring, the theme is identity. I think it is so important that we know who God says we are because this world is so crazy, and it tries to tell us all sorts of lies about how we are. The devil also whispers in our ears who he thinks we are, or at least who he wants us to believe that we are. These are all lies. God is the one who created us, and He is the only one who can tell us who we truly are. This month, on the podcast, I will be going through different scriptures that show us who God says we are. The more we know, the easier it is to dismiss the enemy's lies.

In today’s scripture, Jesus calls us friends. Did you know God thinks you are His friend? I don’t know how many of us actually know that. Many people I have talked to think of God as more of a disciplinarian. They see Him as an old man looking down on us from heaven and judging us for all we are doing wrong. We picture Him just shaking His head at all that we are doing. We think He is up there waiting for us to screw up like we always do so that He can punish us. Is this how you think of God? If so, you are not alone, I have heard this from many people.

Maybe this isn’t the view you have of God. Maybe you know that He is kind and merciful. Yet, you still don’t think of yourself as His friend. I mean, He is God, and you are….well, you. You are just a human. What could you possibly have to offer to God or to this friendship?  In this verse, God is telling us that he no longer calls us slaves, for slaves don’t know what the master is doing. In the time when the Bible was written and in the language it was written, the word that was used is similar to servant. This is a term we tend to be more comfortable with. It is easier to think of ourselves as God’s servants. We owe Him everything and we want to serve Him. We are happy to serve Him.

However, Jesus tells us in this verse that we are not servants; we are His friends. In Jesus’s day, a slave or servant was somebody who repaid a debt to their master by serving them. Slaves didn’t necessarily make major decisions on important matters. They were workers who just did what their employer told them to do. They were not considered equal, and they were not told why they were doing what they were doing. They were just told what they needed to do. In today’s verse, Jesus tells us that he has called us friends because He has shared with us all things that He heard from His Father. Jesus is not calling us to do whatever He tells us blindly. He is telling us all the Father is telling Him, and then He is inviting us to help Him in His mission of spreading the Gospel to the world.

I was a bit confused with the beginning of this verse because it says, “You are no longer slaves.” I was wondering what this meant. When were we slaves? What I found when I researched it a bit is that we were slaves/servants because Jesus sacrificed His life so that we might be set free. He took our sins to the cross for Him. That is a debt that we will never be able to pay back. As I said earlier, a servant was someone who repaid their debt by serving them. Jesus didn’t want us serving Him out of a sense of obligation. Jesus did not want to leave us in this Master/Servant relationship. Jesus invited us to be His friend. He invited us to follow Him and to be a part of all that He was doing. Not because we have to but because we want to.

What does it mean to be a friend to Jesus? When I looked this up online, I found the following: To be a friend of Jesus means to love and obey Jesus and to love and be good to others. There, it listed four attributes of a friend of Jesus.

Loyalty and obedience - Jesus said, "You are my friends if you do what I command you" (John 15:14). 

Love others - Jesus said, "But I am giving you a new command. You must love each other, just as I have loved you" (John 13:34-35). 

Live a holy life - This means living a life that glorifies God, worships Christ, and rejects Satan. 

Serve your community - You can serve your neighborhood or community together with your church or a local ministry.

I also an article (CLICK HERE for article) about a woman who was saying that she had forgotten how important friends are to a Christian. For a while, she forgot this, and she forgot who she was in a basic way. She was fully immersed in survival—moving four times in 5 years, having twins, homeschooling older children—she had no bandwidth to be concerned with anyone outside her immediate family. Then one day her daughter signed up to be in a production of the Wizard of Oz and this came with a mandatory 12 hours of volunteering from the parents. She resented this mandatory commitment, but soon realized how much she needed friendship and connection with other people.

She states in the article that she learned that friendship expresses principles of Christ’s own affection for me. Friendship is a form of communion, where we meet Christ's own love for us. This is why friendship is not extra for the Christian. She then listed the things she has learned from making friends as a grown-up.

Friendship reminds us that we are not alone, but that love is at the core of our identity.

Friendship is a mirror. Friendship reminds us of who we are. Her friends refuse to see her as the sum of her weaknesses and failures. They literally tell her, “I see that you are more than that.” 

Friendship reminds us that we are acceptable, that we are lovable. Acceptance liberates us to face the truth about ourselves, the full truth about who God has made us to be.

Friendship reminds us that love is gratuitous and surprising. God gives us to one another and He knows what will bless us. Some friends you wouldn’t have picked for yourself are given to you as gifts. 

The author invites you to ask the Lord, over the next few days, to show you why friendship matters so much to Him. Then, step forward in faith. Perhaps you can simply start by adding a friend event to your calendar. Perhaps you could shift your energy from social media friendships to one or two actual, embodied friendships. Dare to believe that Jesus desires the joy of friendship for you, that His “joy may be in you and your joy may be perfect” (John 15:11).

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, I ask you to help us accept that you want to be our friend. I ask you to help move that knowledge from our heads to our hearts. Lord, we love you, and we are happy to serve you. However, we struggle to believe you want to be our friend. We struggle to believe we are worthy to be your friend. Please help us, Lord. Please help us to see that you are inviting us into a partnership with you. Please help us to accept that partnership, that friendship. We ask 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 want to wish you a Happy New Year! If you did not listen to the last episode, I want you to invite to give it a listen. It talks about how to live this upcoming year more intentionally. It is good to have a plan as to how we will grow closer to the Lord this year instead of just hoping it will happen. One opportunity to grow that is available to you is my mentoring group. It is a way to spend an hour each week intentionally learning and growing closer to the Lord. Maybe give it a try and see what you think. 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 June 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, “This longing I have given you, it is my gift to you. It is a longing I have promised from of old, from ancient times, and it is a longing that I promise into the future. It is a promise that I keep. You have nothing to fear, for the God who keeps this promise is your Lord and Savior.”

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Choose Carefully!

Romans 6:16 “Don't you realize that Grace frees you to choose your own master? But choose carefully for you surrender yourself to become a servant – bound to the one you choose to obey. If you choose to love sin, it will become your master, and it will own you and reward you with death. But if you choose to love and obey God, he will lead you into perfect righteousness.”

The bookmark in my Passion Translation Bible happened to be in Romans today. Although now that I see the verse, I can see it wasn’t an accident. This is a great verse to end 2024 and begin 2025. I love the end of a year and the beginning of a new year. I get so excited to think about what this year has in store for me. I go through a process with God to select a word and mantra for the year. I am part of Big Life Mentoring, and Pamela Crim has put together some great worksheets that guide you in a conversation with the Lord to figure out your word and mantra.

I believe my word for this year is going to be STEP. After praying with the Lord and asking what I want for next year and what is getting in my way, I feel as though the Lord is telling me this is the year to step out in faith more. This is the year to stop thinking about what I want to do and actually do it. Also, I would like to respond more when He asks me to do something instead of being too afraid of what others may think of me. This has been a problem in the past and I would like to overcome it this year.  

Here is my mantra for 2025:

STEP- Every day I STEP out in Total Trust that God is leading the way. When He calls me to do something, I do it BOLDLY, without hesitation. I am FOCUSED and INTENTIONAL with my time because I know it is a gift from God. I have so much potential, and this year, I will PARTNER with God in a NEW way to achieve all he has planned for me!

I mention my word and mantra for the year because I feel it is important to live intentionally. I think the beginning of the year is a great time to spend some time with the Lord and ask what He has planned for you this year. What would He like you to do? It is also a great time to let Him know what you would like to do and see if He is on board. Setting goals for the year is a great idea because it gives you focus and it gives you direction. If you set a goal and you don’t hit it, you will at least have gotten closer than you would have if you didn’t set a goal.

I love goals. However, you may not be a goal-setting person, and that is great. We are who we are. If you are not someone that likes to set goals can I invite you to at least sit with the Lord and ask Him where your focus should be this year? How are you going to grow in your faith this year? Are you going to work on your connection with others? Are you going to grow in your love of others? Are you going to pray more? Are you going to read more? Are you going to say the rosary daily? Are you going to try to be less judgmental? Are you going to try to love your enemies? Are you going to work on forgiveness? Do you see how many different ways you can grow this year?

However, a lot of times, we don’t focus on how we will grow. We aren’t intentional with our faith and how we live it out. Today’s verse is telling us to be careful about living without intention. It is telling us to choose carefully and not just go about our day without consciously making a choice. Did you know that you make about 35,000 decisions a day, and most experts say that the majority of them are made automatically or subconsciously? Some experts say up to 95% of our decisions can be made subconsciously. That means we aren’t actually even thinking about them. We just make them without thinking. Can you imagine that?

The decision in this verse is so important. The verse says,“Don't you realize that Grace frees you to choose your own master? But choose carefully for you surrender yourself to become a servant – bound to the one you choose to obey. If you choose to love sin, it will become your master, and it will own you and reward you with death. But if you choose to love and obey God, he will lead you into perfect righteousness.” Who doesn’t want perfect righteousness? If we are making 95% of our decisions subconsciously, then what are the odds we are going to choose to love and obey God instead of choosing sin? It seems like most of our day we aren’t even consciously making the choices.

This can actually be good or bad. This is where living intentionally comes in. If you are intentionally living your life as if you love God, then your brain is more likely to default to loving God. If you are staying close to God throughout the day, then your mind is likely to default to loving God. For instance, think about those who have given their lives for the Lord. I have often wondered how they did that. I wondered how they were strong enough to not waiver in their faith even when presented with death. And, it was not always a quick and easy death. Sometimes, it was a long, drawn-out, or very painful death. How could they willingly choose that?

I was talking with a priest about this one day, and he said for them, it wasn’t a choice. They had developed such a deep relationship with the Lord, and they loved Him so much. There wasn’t a way they could renounce the Lord or say anything bad against Him. They felt so strongly about what they believed that they couldn’t deny it. They couldn’t reject the Lord. For them, there was no other choice but to die for their love of the Lord. I don’t know if I am saying that right or if that makes sense, but when he told me that, it made a lot of sense to me.

What do you believe in so strongly that you would be willing to die for it? That is another great question for the new year. Let’s take some time this New Year’s Eve and think about how we lived in 2024 and how we want to live in 2025. I am not saying we need to come up with a hundred New Year’s Resolutions that we will forget all about next week. I am suggesting that we think about how we can set ourselves up for success. How can we ensure that our default decision will be loving the Lord instead of loving sin? What in our lives would need to change in order for us to love the Lord instead of sin intentionally?

The reason behind a word and mantra is that our brains believe what we tell them. I may not currently be stepping out boldly and without hesitation every time the Lord asks me to do something. However, after 365 days of telling myself that I am, I believe I will be, and I can’t wait for that day. I actually don’t think it will be one day. I think there will be a lot of little moments when sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’t, and yet, over the year, I will begin to see more days when I do step out boldly and without hesitation than when I don’t. What are you going to be telling your brain this year?

I invite you to sit with the Lord and ask these questions today. How will I intentionally grow in my love for the Lord this year? What will my focus be for this year? What is one thing I would like to be able to say on December 31, 2025, about my relationship with the Lord and how it has grown over the last year? Then, if you are really brave, you can say, “Lord, I want to partner with you this year; what should we do together?” and really listen to what He wants to do with you!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening today. Lord, I ask for a special blessing for everyone for the New Year. May you bless them and their family and friends. May you rain down your graces and mercy upon them this year. May each one of us grow closer and closer to you. Lord, please help us to choose to love you and not to love sin. Please help us to live intentionally and not just go through our days, letting our subconscious make all of our decisions. We love you, Lord, and we want to love you more and more each and every day of 2025. We need your help though, Lord. Let’s partner together. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me for another year of walking boldly with Jesus. Can you believe another year is over already? Time flies, and it is not unlimited, so let’s enter today intentionally. I would like to invite you to join me for mentoring in January. The topic will be identity, and it is something I think so many of us struggle with. The world tells us who they think we are, and we just believe them without stopping to ask God who He thinks we are. Come join me as we explore who the Lord says we are and our identity as children of God. My prayer is that after this month of mentoring, you will have a better understanding of how amazing you are. I pray you will join me. Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 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, “Think of me when you have problems. Come to me. I should be the first one that you come to, for I can help you in all things, my children. I love you, and I want what is best. So when you have any type of problems, come to me first and I will help you.”

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The Furnace Of Affliction

Isaiah 48:10 “See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.”

This is a verse that most of us probably don’t like. No one wants to be tested in the furnace of affliction. No one wants to face affliction at all, and yet this is where we grow the most. Do we need to have affliction and trouble in our lives to grow? No, God could just give us all that we need without affliction. God can do whatever He wants. However, He knows if He gives it to us, then we won’t appreciate it; we will take it for granted, and we will waste it.

This is true with most things. If we are handed everything we ever need and want from our parents, then we won’t appreciate what we have, and we probably won’t appreciate all they do for us. We will take it for granted because we don’t know anything else. How do I know that God knows this? First, He knows everything. Second, He has seen it in his people time and time again. Remember the Israelites that were saved from Egypt? God saved them in a miraculous way from the years of slavery that they had endured. He saved them, and then he provided food for them every single day. However, because it happened every single day, they started to take it for granted. They decided they would rather be in captivity and have more variety in food than continue to be free and eat this miraculous bread from heaven.

Can you think of a time in your life when you didn’t have to work for something, and you took it for granted? What about the opposite? You had to work really hard for something, and you appreciated it so much more.  Another example that just came to mind was water. In America, everyone I know has more water than they know what to do with. Some pay for water, and some have a well. Either way, they don’t work super hard for their water. Because of this, I have seen a lot of waste when it comes to water, especially in my family. We don’t understand the value of water because we have never gone without water. It has always been right at our fingertips. We currently don’t pay for water either because we have a well. I have seen my kids turn the water on to heat up and then not get in it for 10 minutes or more. Can you imagine how much water we are wasting, just letting it run down the drain?

I know we are not the only people to do this, either. What about all the water bottles we start to do but then don’t finish? I can just imagine what the people in Africa would say or think if they could see all the ways we waste water in America. Globally, more than 1 million people die each year from a lack of access to safe water and sanitation. Unsafe water is a leading risk factor for infectious diseases, including Cholera, Diarrhea, Hepatitis A, Typhoid, and Polio. I find it so hard to understand how there can still be this many people without safe water around the world. I think it can be so easy to think that everyone has the things that you have because you have always had them. You have never known anything different.

I think if we lost power in our houses for a week, or if we lost water for a week, we would have a new appreciation for these things. If we had to grow our own fruits and vegetables instead of just buying them at the store, then we might appreciate them a bit more and not waste them. How many of us buy fresh vegetables with every intention of eating them and then wind up throwing them away because they went bad before we could eat them? I think if we had to do without them for a while, or if they were harder to get, we might appreciate them more.

The same is true with the afflictions we encounter in our lives. Affliction means any pain or suffering we have had to endure. Today’s verse tells us that we are refined through the furnace of these afflictions. We all want to be refined. We want to grow closer to the Lord. We want to grow more into who the Lord is calling us to be, and yet we don’t want the afflictions. Who wants to endure pain and suffering? Who wants to be in a furnace? Can’t we just be refined without all that? Yes, but this is how God has chosen to refine us. This is for our own good.

I was just listening to a sermon by Steven Furtick from Elevation Church the other night while driving home. He said that there was a false article written about their church a few years ago saying that they fake Baptisms. He was not happy about the article, and it was a really stressful time for him and the church. However, now that they are through it, He said he is glad it was written. The reason he said this is because the church was refined through this adversity. When the article was written, they were doing Baptisms at their church once or twice a year. Since that article was written, they now do Baptisms every single week. Was the affliction they had to go through fun? No! But they did grow from it, and God brought a blessing from their church out of it.

Think back to some of the hardest times in your life. Are you different now because of them? Are you stronger in some way? Can you see how God used that affliction to refine you? God most likely didn’t cause the affliction, yet He allowed you to go through it because He knew He could use it to refine you. He knew He could use it to make you a better person, a better parent, spouse, partner, son, daughter, sibling or wherever else He wanted you to grow.

I know adversity and affliction is hard. I know it is not something we look forward to. However, I wonder how differently we would handle affliction if we were able to shift our mindset about it? I wonder how different of an experience it would be if we went into curious and even excited about how God was going to use this to help us grow. If we were able to keep our eyes on Jesus while in the middle of the pain and the suffering and try to find where He is using it to help refine us. Things tend to be easier if we can find meaning in them. Maybe that meaning isn’t coming from the situation, but how God is using the situation to refine us make us better?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening today. Lord, help us see how you are using our painful situations to refine us. Help us to look at our situation with new eyes. Help us to be curious and excited, not for the pain and suffering but for the new growth in us that came because of this suffering. Lord, help us to remember we are never alone, and you are always right there with us as we go through any adversity. 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. Mentoring for the new year starts one week from tomorrow. The theme for January is Identity, and you won’t want to miss it. I pray it will change how you see yourself. I pray you will understand who you are as a child of God. 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 June 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 am with you always. Come to me. Do not be afraid. I am always with you.”

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Unity

Romans 10:11-13 "The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

When I read this verse this morning, I knew it was the one I should talk about. It talks about something very important that I think we forget about a lot. This verse shows us that the Lord does not get caught up in race or religion. It says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” It says everyone, not just some. This was a letter written to the Romans in the early church. Back in the day, Jews definitely thought that the Savior was coming to save them. Even those who were followers of Jesus were stunned when He was ministering to everyone and when He would talk to anyone.

Do you remember the woman at the well? Jesus made it a point to talk to her even though Jews and Samaritans were not allowed to talk, and men certainly weren’t supposed to talk to women they did not know. When Jesus came, it seemed like He turned everything upside down. He showed the apostles and the world that there was a new way of living. He wanted them to know they were no longer governed by a whole long list of rules. Now, they were governed by the Holy Spirit. If they weren’t sure what they should or should not do, they could consult the Holy Spirit, and He would lead them in the right direction. He would remind them of all that Jesus said and did while He walked on Earth.

The same is true for us. We have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, and He will guide us to doing what is right, and He will convict us when we are doing something wrong. The only problem with this is that we need to listen to Him, and sometimes we don’t want to. We all have that still small voice inside of us that tells us when we should do something or when something doesn’t feel right. Yet, we don’t always listen to it because sometimes we don’t want to do what we know we should do, and sometimes we want to do something we know we shouldn’t do.

Before the Holy Spirit came down to live in them, the Jewish people were bound by a large number of commandments. When I looked it up online, it said 613 commandments, but then it said there is no universally agreed-upon number. It doesn’t matter how many, you get the idea that it was a lot of commandments that they were responsible for upholding. However, when Christ came, He said in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” Jesus was showing his apostles that things had changed. It seemed like He was showing them that it wasn’t as important to focus on all the little things but more on the big things. It seems like Jesus was making it easier for people to understand what is important.

For instance, in Matthew 15, the phrases and scribes came to Jesus and asked why the apostles broke the tradition of the elders by not washing their hands before eating, and Jesus asked them why they broke the commandment of the Lord to honor thy mother and father. Here, Jesus is pointing out that the commandments were given to us by the Lord. None of our laws or our traditions should go against what the Lord has told us in those commandments.

Going back to today’s verse, "The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” This reminds us that Jesus didn’t just come to save one group of people. He didn’t just come to save the Jews. I think in our day and age, we can also extend this to He didn’t just come to save the Catholics, the Jews, and the Protestants. I think we can get caught up in the differences of our religion and forget all that we have in common. God wants all of His children saved. That means, no matter your race, religion, age, sex, God wants you to know and believe about Him.

Do you believe in God? Do you call upon Him? It says right here in this verse that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I have had many discussions with many people about whether we know that we are going to heaven. This verse seems to say that if you believe in God and you call upon Him, then you will not be put to shame. There are more verses like this in the Bible. There are also verses that say you are not saved on faith alone, but faith with works. This does not imply that you have to earn your way into heaven. It is saying that you can’t just believe in the Lord and ignore all those around you, like the poor and needy. It is dangerous when we take verses on their own and don’t read them in the context of the whole Bible.

I truly believe that none of us knows who is and is not getting into heaven because we do not know what is inside anyone else’s heart. We also might not know what is in our own hearts. For instance, do we have unforgiveness hiding in our hearts and masquerading as something else? Only God knows our hearts, and that is why He is the only one who gets to judge us.

I remember I was talking about this with a friend of mine from Encounter one day, and she said she was having the same conversation with the Lord. I can’t remember if she was asking the Lord if she would get to go to heaven, or maybe she was asking about a loved one. I don’t remember what exactly she was asking, but the Lord told her she was asking the wrong question. The question shouldn’t be, will I get into heaven one day? The question should be, am I loving God? What a great question for each of us to ask ourselves today and every day. Am I loving God today? Are my actions and words showing me loving God today? Is the way I am treating others showing God that I am loving Him today? What can I do today to show God how much I love Him?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening. Lord, help us to take our focus off of the laws and put our focus on you. Help us keep our eyes on you this upcoming year. When we look away help us to turn back to you a lot quicker this year. Lord, help us to listen to the amazing gift of the Holy Spirit you have given us to us. He will guide us if we let Him. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Some of you have been with me since the beginning, and I am so grateful. No matter when you started listening, I am grateful that you have made me a part of your day, and I pray the Lord blesses you in this upcoming year.  I also want to invite each of you to join my mentoring group. We meet on Tuesday night on Zoom. You do not have to have your camera on if you do not want to, and you do not have to talk if you do not want to. Also, if you can’t be there Tuesday nights on Zoom, you can always watch the recording. January’s theme is Identity. It is going to be a great month, and you won’t want to miss it! I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I. Have a blessed day.

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 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 Holy Spirit is bringing you my peace. The peace of the Father, and the peace that only we can give you. Open your hearts to that peace, my children. It is a peace that you do not understand but a peace that your God gladly gives you and wishes to bring into your hearts right now.”

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