The Last Thing I Learned

What is the last thing you learned?

I learned that God expects us to obey. Blessings will not come until we do the last thing God told us to do.

I can’t expect to receive a blessing until I obey the last thing God told me to do.

Almost every commandment we receive from God is accompanied by a promised blessing. Obedience to the command brings freedom, personal growth, protection from danger, and many other temporal and spiritual blessings.

If we are struggling we need to remember what the last command God told us to do and do it.

Developing Faith Through Adversity

Trials allow us to apply God’s Word instead of just reading it.

When we read the Bible we see many people serving Jesus for years. They experienced continual suffering. Which doesn’t seem fair. Who would God let them go through so much pain? It’s a question many of us ask today about ourselves. We think that the Lord should protect us from hardships but He doesn’t always do so.

Maybe our reasoning is backward. We think that faithful believers don’t deserve to suffer, but from God’s perspective, suffering is part of being a faithful believer. If we all had lives of ease without pain, we would never really know God, because we would never need Him. Like it or not, adversity teaches us things that simply reading the Bible never will.

I’m not saying we don’t need to know Scripture, that’s our foundation for faith. But if what we believe is never tested, it remains only head knowledge. How will we ever know God can be trusted amid trouble if we’ve never experienced hardships? God gives us opportunities to apply scriptural truths to the difficulties facing us, and in the process, we find Him faithful,

Trials can be a means of building faith or an avenue to discourage and self-pity -it’s up to you. But if you apply God’s Word to your situation, your trust in Him and your faith will be strengthened through adversity.

“But we also rejoice in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; and perseverance, proven character, hope, and hope doesn’t disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us“ – Romans 5:3-5

One Question I Hate Being Asked

What is one question you hate to be asked? Explain.

I hate being asked why I’m so quiet. After being told to shut up as a child. I feel I am more of an observer and listener. I like to listen to people it’s how I learn. We can listen and learn a whole lot about a person. I used to and learn whether to trust them or not.

I gain insight, I notice little things. When we learn to be quiet we are more able to pick up on patterns, behaviors, and nuances most people overlook.

Because of my childhood, I had to learn by listening and observing the things around me. I am quiet because that’s how I have learned to function.

It takes me a long time to warm up to people, if I don’t think I can trust someone I don’t let them in.

4 Ways The Holy Spirit Speaks To You

The promise from Jesus came when He went away. He promised to send us a helper.

There is a description of the nudge if the Holy Spirit. It’s an inarticulate expression in out minds to do this or that or not to do something. These are usually whispers that don’t come articulated in the form of a complete sentence or even in words. It is an overwhelming feeling of peace and confidence you are doing the right thing, or taking action that God wants for you.

1. An unshakable thought

The Holy Spirit tugging starts as a tiny thought that comes into your mind and begins to poke at you. It’s like a “Ping Ping” maybe I should be this.

“For your thoughts are not my thoughts not are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” – Isaiah 55:8-9

You can rest assured that a thought can be planted by God to help lead you. Thoughts come and go, but an unshakable thought, whether unshakable for a week or years, if it comes back, it is worth looking at.

Sometimes there are wordless impressions in your mind. When they come in a form of a thought, they can be very powerful, or they can come as a whisper.

2. The Holy Spirit’s leading will come with doubt and fear.

Why would His leading come with doubt and fear? Because we are human, and we don’t know the outcome. It is typically out of our comfort zone, something that causes you to do something disruptive in your own life, that start or stop of something new or old. In a nutshell, it’s uncomfortable.

3. The Holy Spirit’s leading transitions into a feeling or heart positioning.

It feels like your heart is pulling and doors start opening where you see that this is possible for you.

This is when the feelings start to help you know it is from the Holy Spirit.

Heart positioning is where your heart aligns with the Holy Spirit’s heart and now you are working together.

4. The Holy Spirit prompts you to take action.

You will feel prompted to act. There is nothing you can do to stop yourself from taking action in what you are feeling led to do. This is how you know for sure that this is from the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is speaking to you. You are spiritually being convicted to move.

Don’t try to overthink it or second-guess yourself. Just act. If you are not sure pray. He will give you a yes if it’s the Holy Spirit.

John 14:17 says, “The spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him not knows Him. But you know Him for Her dwells with you and will be in you.”

The Holy Spirit is a truth bringer, a truth speaker, and there is truth over your life. The truth of God reigns. The truth of where you are being called to go is available for you, it is time to take action on the very step.

God’s plan is so much bigger than your dreams can ever be. The Holy Spirit’s nudge is what got me writing a blog.

If you feel that nudge, you have nothing to lose, and clarity to gain to see if it’s the right next step for you.

Hindered Prayer

How effective are your prayers? What things can harm the prayers you pray? All of us want our prayers to be answered. Why else would we pay them.

God always answers. We just get troubled when His answer is contrary to our request. His answer is sometimes no.

1 John 5:13-15 says,

“And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him.“

God definitely answers prayers. The key here is “according to His will.” That’s when He hears and answers our prayers.

The Bible says our prayers can be hindered by several things. So there are prayer blockers.

The first prayer blocker is unforgivenes. When we harbor resentment, offense, bitterness, or anger toward another person it blocks our prayers.

In Mark 11:25 Jesus says, “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father, who is in heaven, may also forgive you your transgressions.

We are to forgive if we want to be forgiven.

The second prayer blocker is unconfessed sin. Asking God to move on your behalf when you knowingly continue to sin leads to our prayers going unanswered.

Psalm 66:18 says, “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.”

Doing bad things never earns good things. Sin is a barrier that always separates us from God.

Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death,but the free gift of God is eternal life in Messiah Yeshua our Lord.”

The third prayer blocker is selfishness. James 4:3 says, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” We don’t get our prayers answered because our motives are impure and wrong.

God always answers prayers according to His Will and desires. If it isn’t His will or goes against His will, you can be sure it won’t get answered.

It isn’t selfish to pray for ourselves, but we can be unselfish about it.

Jesus prayed to His Father, “Not my will but Yours be done” in Luke 22:42.

Another prayer blocker is ignoring Scripture. James 4:17, says, knowing what to do and not doing it is a sin.

Proverbs 28, 9 also says, “If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer will be an abomination.”

Luke 6:46 says, “Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and don’t do the things which I say.”

Hope can we call Him Lord if we don’t know what He says. How can we pray something contrary to God’s Word and except God to answer us. I have found one if the best ways to get my prayers answered is to pray the scripture itself.

“For the Word of the Lord is right and true. He is faithful in all He does” – Psalm 33:4.

Failure or Apparent Failure that set me up

How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?

My success comes from a troubled childhood. Being abused changed how I think about the world. It was either get tough or die. I had a choice to hate the world or love it. It’s funny I never want to cause pain to people who enter my life because I know how bad it hurts.

My experiences through life has led to people who have been in similar situations and I was able to help them. I believe my traumatic life has led to my success of helping others. As well as a love for communicating through writing.

My being abused every time a talked as a child has been a struggle for me to get over the fear of talking. While I may not be able to communicate in social situations I believe that is what helps my thinking process and helps with my writing skills.

Combating Distractions In Bible Study

Distractions are all around us. Our phones, noise from every day things, that can distract our train of thought.

I used to set my time with God between 7-8 in the morning. But I would get distracted easily. Once my train of thought is broken there is no sense trying to return.

It doesn’t help that I am a over thinker. I tend to analyze every little thought in my head.

Now I have my Bible study time between 3-4 in the morning. It is much quieter and I don’t get as distracted.

I have ready me quiet time basket:

I make sure I have a quiet time basket, it’s basket will all my books, resources, and paper and pen. Everything I think I’ll need so I won’t have to get up and get distracted. My Bible or study Bible, a notebook, a pen and a highlighter, and reference book. It isn’t anything fancy just a basket I pick up at a thrift store.

Remember to silence my phone

I have my phone set on do not disturb mode. So no one can reach me except my children and a friend that’s having a rough time after just losing her husband.

Play soothing music

I make sure I have soothing music in the back ground. I typically choose messianic music because it is what soothes my soul the most.

Start with a brain dump

Because my brain never seems to shut off, except the 4-5 hours of sleep I get. This is a big barrier to my focused time of spending time with God. I always begin with prayer that God will show me what He wants me to see.

I few simple tips to not become distracted while spending time with God.

Autobiography

You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?

The first line of my autobiography would probably be something like this. Life itself is a continuous journey of growth and self-discovery. It encourages us to embrace change and risk to constantly challenge ourselves to achieve new heights.

Objects I Can’t Live Without

What are three objects you couldn’t live without?

There are few essentials in life that can’t be overlooked -air, water, food, sleep, and shelter. But what about the rest of the stuff, that makes life worth living?

We’ve have become conditioned to think there are certain things that we absolutely must have to make life more convenient, comfortable and enjoyable.

I try and learn the difference between what I have and what I truly need.

I would say my coffee machine is something cannot live without. And another one would be books. I love books because I love learning. Many would say they have the internet but they rely on someone to give us the services they need to access them. It can be taken away in an instant. I also could not live without a way to contact my children. As much as I dislike phones, they do keep us in contact without them.