Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Inner Conversations

Often times we look at what is going on in our lives and wonder, "How did this happen?"  You need to evaluate your Inner Conversations.  What you are saying to yourself about yourself?  Be assured that what you say to yourself about yourself is more important that what anyone else is saying about you!!!!

When someone says you don't qualify to live the dream you have in your heart, chances are you have already told yourself that.  You probably were moving in the direction with a zeal because the idea excited you and you know it would be fun.  It could be the thing that would break you free and catapult you into the lifestyle you have always dreamed you would walk in but your Inner Conversations can be the thing that holds you back. 

Write down the ideas you have for: weight loss, career, relationships or whatever it is you desire.  Then walk away from your list.  After 24 hours, go back to your list and reflect back on what you have thought about and said to yourself concerning each of those things you have written on your paper.  Be honest with yourself about those Inner Conversations.  Did you eat something you shouldn't have eaten and told yourself you weren't ever going to loose the weight?  Did you make a big mistake at work and question your qualifications or ability to get things done?  Are you watching your friends enjoy great relationships and tell yourself you will never have a good relationship or find someone to really love you?  Did you realize your bank account has .78 or less and bill are due?  What was that conversation like? 

See it's not only the things you say to yourself when you are focused on making changes or when you are feeling good about you, it's also what you are telling yourself all throughout the day and night.  What  you're saying when things aren't where you want them to be. Even the times when things are good and you aren't used to them being good.  You can have money in the bank and saying you have to be sure to pay all the bills before you run out of money.  That's lack talking and running out of money is inevitable.  You can be in a really good relationship and say to yourself that the relationship won't last because it's too good to be true.  The relationship is coming to an end...even if you are really happy with the other person.  It's amazing how we get what we pray and work for only to loose it to our Inner Conversations.

When you hear yourself say something contrary to where you're going or what  you desire stop right there.  Speak a word of faith!!  Say something that brings you back to your goal.  Know for certain that your Inner Conversations are the drivers of your life.  Those things you think to yourself that not another soul can hear.  Those thoughts, meditations, and feelings need to be controlled and redirected.  When you don't control those things they will come out of your mouth eventually and there in is your manifestation.

To Change your life Change your Inner Conversations!!

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Are You Open to Receive?

I love to talk to people to hear what they want to see happen in their lives.  I like to help them get there if I can.  I enjoy watching them going for it and am just as elated when they arrive at that goal as if it were me.

One day I was having a discussion with my dad about all the things I've been reading and learning, even more importantly understanding.  The changes that are happening in me and how excited about all of it I am.  I told him about a book I was reading that asked the question:  Do you really believe the impossible can happen?  Well of course I said yes.  Then the question came back to me: DO YOU?  Then I was taken on an internal journey.  (These can be painful if you are really looking at yourself honestly)  Things I'm "believing" to see come to pass in my life came up like little video clips.  One by one I could see them as objects but I wasn't really a part of the clip.  So I asked God where I was and the answer really surprised me.  He told me there is a difference between believing for something and being open to receive it and believing for something but not being open to receive it.  When you're open to receive it you see yourself in the picture without struggle, you feel the manifestation as real and present now.  You aren't trying to figure out what you will do until you get it.  You don't think about your present situation as if it is permanent.  You can decide that this is what you want because you see the benefit of it, you will be able to do things differently when you have it, you won't have to struggle anymore when it happens or you know that God said you can have it.  You can know that there's a way to get more done than you are doing now however, if you aren't open to receive it...it's not coming until you are!!!

What are your thoughts surrounding what you are believing for?  Do you wonder what other people will think about you?  Do you think it's really possible for you to have it?  Do you want it really badly but think if it doesn't happen it's okay?  Do you think since you can't see how it's going to happen it may not happen?  Are you wondering WHEN?  These thoughts or thoughts that are similar let you know that you aren't really open to receive. 

You want to first recognize those thoughts when they come and say something that will get your thoughts back in line and stop that thought.  Start listening to or reading books that get you in a different mental environment.  Stop spending a lot of time listening to or discussing what you don't have or what's not working.  If you like to watch television, choose something that expands your view of the world outside of where you are right now.  Spend time around people that are going somewhere with their lives and people that will push you beyond your perceived limitations. Have some affirmations that you speak to yourself daily.  Most importantly...DO NOT GO TO BED STRESSED, ANGRY OR WORRIED!!!  I'm sure everyone has heard the statement...married people shouldn't go to bed angry.  Well I will submit to you married or single you shouldn't go to bed angry.  When you are sleeping your subconscious is wide awake.  Working on manifesting what you've been thinking and feeling most.  The last thing on your mind tends to have an effect on your sleep.  So you may want to read something that makes you feel good, listen to some music that soothes you, or resolve the issue.  If you can't do anything about it at the time then you need to pray and release it to God.  In order for thing to change you have to change.

If you don't do anything to change your openness to receive, you will continue to do things that you hear bring manifestation and wondering why there is no manifestation.

Here's an example for you.  I was visiting a friend one day and she took out some collard greens.  I got all excited because I love collard greens...as long as they're cooked right.  Well she started taking out the seasonings and chopped up the greens.  Then she did something I wasn't expecting...she took out a WOK?  I started wondering what she was going to do with that.  She poured in the oil and threw in the collards...WHAT???  Who does that??? I was immediately closed to the idea of collard greens being prepared that way.  Well I didn't enjoy them!!!  I was so caught up thinking about the way I'm used to eating them and how much I enjoy them that way.  I may well have enjoyed them had I been open to something different.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

License to Sin

I've heard the statement, "License to Sin" in churches and Christian circles for a long time.  I have wondered on a lot of occasions what is that?  I understand licenses to drive, marry and do business.  The crazy thing is you only really need formal training to get a license to drive.  All the other ones are voluntary and don't come with a lot of instructions.  You get a license to marry but there's no instruction booklet.  You get a license to do business and you are told the laws but for the most part it's a learn as you go kind of thing.  However, I've not known a license that guarantees success in any endeavor.  Which is why driver's licenses are suspended and revoked.  Marriage licenses are debunked by divorce decrees and business licenses have expiration dates and laws to dissolve. 

Sin is absolutely and totally VOLUNTARY!!!  The temptation comes and you decide to do it or not to do it.  What happens is people look for ways to sin and be okay with it.  In the church people are taught to believe that God is sitting in heaven waiting on you to do something wrong so he can throw the PUNISHMENT book at you?  Even with all the "Hell, Fire and Brimstone" Preaching it hasn't stopped people from sinning.  Why because it's a CHOICE.  God gave us the freedom to choose and when people want to do something good or bad they will.  Telling people about the goodness of God and letting them know God has taken care of their sin from the time they accepted Jesus until they meet Him in heaven is not a license to sin.  If anything it's a license to love.  If your child disappoints you do you throw them away forever?  Even if you did God wouldn't!!!

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Having Peace of Mind

When your mind is under attack, you try to pray and you find that your mind is overrun with thoughts of defeat, fear and unrest.  You call friends and nothing you hear helps.  You can't sleep because your mind is racing.  You don't understand why you are praying and it seems that you are the only one that hears those prayers.  You cry about it because you are out of words to speak.  Then you hear that verse on television, you read it on a post somewhere, you open your bible trying to find something that will soothe you and BAM!!!!  There it is, everywhere.  Isaiah 26:3 - Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.  The problem is when you see or hear the verse you feel better at that moment but how does it really work...really?  It's another one of those illusive things that you hear in church.  Like, "Just reach out and take it"!  You are looking around and wonder do I reach up or out.  What am I going to get?  But then you see every reaching up screaming and shouting.  That's when you think I can just grab it somewhere.  You feel like you got that thing...while you are at the service. 

Then you get home!!!  Where is the peace that you were reaching up or out grabbing?  What happened to it because while the choir was singing or the preacher was proclaiming the blessing is yours...where is it now that you are at home.  How do I keep my mind stayed on God because I really need my perfect peace.  You go through this cycle over and over and over wondering why this isn't working.  Then your heart gets sick because you have been hoping, praying, grabbing and crying for the change but it hasn't shown up.  This stuff must not work.  These people are making this stuff up.

Well no it's not made up, proper understanding of how you access the peace of God is what's lacking.  The first thing you have to do to obtain peace in any area of life, you have to keep your mind stayed on God.  How do you do that?  The first thing you need to do is quiet your mind.  Stop the voice in your head that's continually speaking to you this thing will go on forever or it will be the end of you.  Then listen to something that will help you focus your attention on God.  Get you a statement of faith that you can say at the drop of a dime.  This statement of faith needs to be short but impactful.  Don't say I'm not going to keep thinking about this but I'm going to think about God.  It's not going to work.  You have to have something that is truth.  If you listen to music it needs to be about God only.  Not a song or sermon that is talking about things you or someone else is dealing with because you will identify with the issue and it will pull your attention off of God.  A song like "How Great is Our God" because it only talks about God's greatness.  When you are focused on Him everything starts shrinking.  The reason you need a statement of faith is you can always make the statement to yourself softly even if someone is around.  You can't be having issues on your job and break out in a song.  As you are doing this you will begin change.  Your perspective will begin change.  Your thoughts will begin to change.  Your circumstances may not change immediately but they will change...They MUST change to your benefit.  God will begin to direct you and lead you because you are focused on Him.  Your confidence in Him and His word will rise up.  You will become unshakeable.  When God tells you to do something contrary to what your mind has been coming up with don't be afraid of that.  You may have to keep things to yourself until you are walking in your victory.  This will keep the naysayers out of your head, they will come from the inside of you so no need to add fuel to the fire.  Continue to follow the leading of God and you will find that there is not only a resolution to your present issue but happy surprises and extras that you have wanted but weren't sure if it was okay to have as a desire.

Let me warn you on something.  When the peace of God settles in and you aren't worried or trying to figure out how to get through this situation, it's a little unsettling.  You will wonder if it's okay that you aren't thinking about it.  It absolutely okay.  This is also the time to start making your affirmation of faith or sing your song to maintain your peace.  If not, that thought will begin to fester and you will start tending to your issue again.  You start making that affirmation or put that song on and your peace will remain.  You will continue to trust God, have a peace that you can't explain to even yourself and your life will start changing.  Those changes will be so dramatic that your very presence will demand an explanation.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Error in Expecting

When you are in a tough place and you are expecting a miracle what do you do?

It is amazing what some people do.  We pray and God tells us that he will do it.  What usually happens is we start looking in every direction for who will be the vessel that God uses to get the prayer answered.  We think about every person we know that would be able to do it, from what direction it will be coming.  However we should be expecting the end based on what God said not trying to figure out how.  We should be resting like Jesus was resting in the boat during the storm.  Knowing it is done not concerned about when or how it will be done.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Your Identity for Purpose

Now that you've had some time to think about your identity there's a reason you need to have the same mind as Jesus.   If you continue to read down through the verses you will see that having that mind will help you become the person God created.  You will be able to submit to God's will for your life.  When you understand that, you have to disperse your will and inadequacies for the will of God. It becomes a labor of love.  You do it willingly.  Even when it gets hard you know it isn't about you.  You are able to weather the storm fearlessly because you know God is with you.  You realize that God loves you and He will take care of you no matter what you're facing. 

You learn to look to God more and people less.  God doesn't have a problem getting things done.  You start living a life directed by God and you will find yourself living a life of adventure.  Life that's full of life.  Not everyday will be perfect but your perspective will change.   When you look at things from the perspective of the love of God and for the love of others you are able to persevere.  It could be compared to a mother's love for her child or her children.  A mother will do anything to protect, provide for, and take care of her children.

As you are following God you will learn that not everyone will understand or agree with you. There will even be those that try to tell you why you can't or shouldn't.  In order to take the initial step you may have to go without telling a living soul.  If you're married you will need to get the support of your spouse.  If they aren't in agreement, turn it over to God and allow Him to get them there and don't move forward until they are on board.  When you start seeing signs of progress don't stop following God's direction.  What He has given you to do is Him expressing Himself through you.  Since you don't have the full picture of what He wants it and you to be you have to stay in lock step with Him.  If you need GPS to get somewhere you don't cut it off halfway there or you will get lost or never arrive at your destination.  That's why keeping God first place in your life is critical.

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Your Identity

God is divinity.  God is omnipresent.  God is all knowing.  God is faithful.  God is Love.  These are just a few characteristics of God.  Think about this statement as you read this post...God is IN YOU!!  He desires to express himself through you.  This doesn't mean His liver is in you or His legs are in you but it means the ESSENCE of GOD is in you.  When you see it from the perspective of God being a part of you then you expect less of yourself and think you can't do what He's asking of you.  When He impresses a vision on the inside of you He doesn't expect you to do it in your own strength.  He knows how to get things done.  Think of it this way...Your vision is what God is doing through you.  He doesn't want you to look at your shortcomings, imperfections or your abilities to do this or that.  He wants you to yield to His direction and His operation.  When you see it as something you have to do, you think you can't because you are looking at what you are seeing in the mirror or what you are seeing around you.  When you start seeing the plan/vision as God's and His to complete, you are able to connect with what He is doing through you.  You begin to let it flow out of you.  You become non resistant like water.  You flow through the doors that are open and speak when the opportunity presents itself.

God has no problem getting things done.  He has no lack nor does he arrive too late.  There should be no reason these things are manifesting in your life.  However they are manifesting so you should ask yourself why?  Why are you afraid, why are you missing opportunities?  It's because of what you are identifying with.  Do you identify with the struggles of life; what has never been a part of your life or how hard things have been for you?  Do you identify with the challenges of your family life?  Whatever you identify with will be the experience you draw into your life. 

It's time to change your identity.  Identify with God, His character, the very Essence of who He is.  It will change how you see everything.  It will change what you expect because you begin to see nothing being impossible.  The word says with God all things are possible.  When you see yourself as separate from God you don't see everything as possible.  When you see yourself as one with God then your perspective changes.

"Let this mind be in you that is in Christ Jesus:  Who, being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God."  (Philippians 2:5-6)  In times past when I read this verse I don't know what I was thinking it meant but now I think I understand it.  Jesus didn't think he was robbing God the Father of anything or making God less than who he was by thinking himself equal with God.  Do you think yourself equal with God.  Paul said let that same mind be in you...you think this way as well.  See yourself equal with God.  That's a big idea.  Thinking yourself equal with God.  I bet your mind is doing backflips right now.  If so go back to the beginning of this blog and read the part I told you to remember.  I'll stop here so you can meditate on this for a little while.