1 John 2:6...
Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did! Jesus' anointing as stated in Luke 4 was to preach the good news to the poor (Luke6:20, James1:27), to proclaim freedom to prisoners (Rom6:17-18, Rev1:5), recovery of sight to the blind (Luke18:35-43, Also, recovery of sight implies an anointing to restore sight to those who have seen but currently do not), to release the oppressed (Gal3:23-28) and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor (Is61:1-2). How proactive are we in being Jesus' hands and feet and continuing his work today? Are we embracing widows, orphans, the fatherless, the homeless, the poor, single mothers, etc.?
It is not just with our money, but with our time and effort do we feed Him, clothe Him and cover Him when He needs us most!?

We Miss you Adrienne...!!!!

I recently began meditating on the story of Jonah, and how I would normally just say, "Jonah was disobedient to the Lord and ended up in the belly of a fish and finally surrendered." But, this story has more implications than I normally would mention or meditate on.

According to the Bible, "The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me." But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD."- Jonah 1:1-3. As we can see, Jonah was in direct disobedience to the Lord and chose to do his own thing. He boarded the ship to flee to Tarshish, but still could not flee the fact that he was in disobedience to the Lord.

Jonah 1:4-6 says, "Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, "How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish." Can you believe that while the sailors were being caught up on the wind storm as a result of Jonah's disobedience, he was ASLEEP? WOW. That's serious. Now I am beginning to wonder if in acts of diobedience, I have been comfortable or even SLEEPING while others were being effected.

As the story goes on, the sailors cast lots to see who is responsible for the storm and all arrows point to Jonah's decision to flee the direction of the Lord. The sailors cast him overboard, where he ends up in the belly of the fish. The amazing thing is how one man's decision to listen to his own flesh rather than the voice of God threw everyone else off. It caused an unecessary storm others' lives. This is so important. The choices that we make everyday, especially as dear children of God, is vital. It could mean life or death to another, peace or turmoil, or even whether or not to become a follower of Jesus Christ. The effect that we have on others is in direct correlation to our obedience to God. There have been times in my own life that I have been in disobedience to God, and have had no peace. As a result, I disrupted the peace of the people around me, simply because of my frustration, stubborness, and unwillingness to surrender to God's plan for my life. Because I was fleeing what God was instructing me to do, the people around me were effected, much like the sailors aboard the ship with Jonah. The awesome thing about God is that we can only ignore Him for so long until we are finally brought back to Him and what He has instructed us to do. He loves us too much to allow us to remain out of His will and out of fellowship with Him. Even if He has to use the people around us to get our attention, He will do just that. He is tenacious in His love for us.

Whatever decision you may have to face, remember that your obedience is key not only to your life, but the lives of the people that God has placed around you. Your disobedience could mean a storm, while your obedience could bring hope and peace. See, God was going to destroy Nineveh because of its wickedness, but Jonah's eventual obedience to go and "warn" the people of the coming destruction brought them to a place of repentance and restoration. In the end, the Ninevites fasted and God showed the city great compassion and did not bring the destruction he had threatened.

Even if you have disobeyed God and feel the Lord tugging you to come to a place of surrender, remember that His love for you is great and He can restore you. He goes to great lengths to guide us and protect us, even if He has to send a storm to get our attention. Yes, it's just that important. Your "Yes" to God could effect the lives of others.

The definition of a stronghold is: a well-fortified place; fortress.

As you can see, this definition is neutral. Just like money, it is neither good or evil, it just is what it is.

The problem is that we have attached a negative connotation to the word "stronghold". You can rest assured that the concept of a stronghold is high ranking within the strategy of the demonic sabotage. But it is very important that we know exactly what it is, so that we can recognize them when they exist in our lives, and so that we could apply them to our advantage.

An evil stronghold is a place in our minds that has been in essence, a playground for carnal thinking. This place has been hardened against renewal, and it opposes its spiritual opposite. Like a fortified place, the walls are made out of solid material, and not easily penetrated. The purpose of a stronghold is to remain defensive at all costs, protecting what's inside.

What builds up the walls of evil strongholds are the wicked suggestions of our advesary, Satan and his minions, and our own words that line up with fear and condemnation, for instance: words of doubt that say the promises of God will not come to pass. Without transforming how we operate after encountering the suggestions of the enemy, we could very well take each evil stronghold with us to the grave.
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But whose to say that mind strongholds can't be good?
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What if we utilized our words that line up with the word of God, and the suggestions/commands of God's Holy Spirit to create Godly strongholds.

What if we made a stronghold out of thoughts about God's love for us? This place would gaurd against invading suggestions that cause us to question our true identity as God's children, who are joint heirs to the throne.

The NASB Translation of Psalms 9:9 Says:
"The LORD also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, A stronghold in times of trouble"

Wow!

So the enemy has this full time job of whispering the right things into our ear to ignite stronghold building thoughts out of corrupt words (suggestions). He has a plan for your finances, relationships, time management ect.....
and he has devised a plan to help usher you into the wrong thought life that will embrace the strongholds of darkness. But God wants to be your biggest stronghold. God wants to be in the biggest, most glorified castle found inside of your mind. He wants you to be able to find refuge there, so that all wicked strongholds would obtain an expiration date, and all demon thoughts would be served an eviction notice.

So let us turn it around on the enemy. Build up fortified truths through prayer and word acquisition, while tearing down demonic strongholds with the word:

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 Says:
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

God could be the ultimate Stronghold in your mind.

I watched a movie this evening and Jesus' words to the disciples kept coming to my head: "Oh ye of little faith."

In the movie, the woman was unhappily married and felt caged. She had everything she needed, but didn't feel free. Her husband offered everything he had, but it wasn't enough. She eventually took a leap of faith and left the known for the unknown. Not advocating divorce, but her step of faith paid dividends. She ended up alone in the end, but fulfilled by her life experiences. If she hadn't stepped out on faith, she would have never experienced happiness or the freedom the world had to offer.

On a personal note, my sister recently got into a car accident in a car I had rented for the weekend. She didn't have auto insurance since she doesn't have a car. I had also promised her a month prior to assist with her rent since I knew she was in a financially challenging situation.

I debated whether I should continue to honor my promise to her as far paying her rent or whether I should use that money for the car repair after the collision. Everything in my 'right' mind told me to keep it and save it because I'd need it later. But for some reason, my spirit told me to honor my promise and step out on faith that I would not need the money later. I'm not going to lie and say I yielded to the spirit immediatey because I did not. I debated the two options in my mind for a week until I came to myself and realized that if I was faithful to my word and that if my heart was in the right place, God would honor that and take car of the car situation. So I stepped out on faith and deposited Justine's October rent Friday afternoon. Well, Geico called this morning and said not only would they cover the auto repair, but they would also waive my $500 deductible, so $0 out of pocket for me, even though we were at fault.

With God, it doesn't matter who's at fault because when we're faithful to Him and believe that He will make a way, He does just that... in ways greater than anything we could hope or imagine.

Same thing with the disciples. There are some many times in the gospels where they KNEW Jesus and the power/authority He had through the Father, but they lacked faith:

- Raising Lazarus from the dead
- Feeding the multitudes
- Walking on water in the midst of a storm
- Healing
- Etc.

Jesus would always say, "Oh ye of little faith" and then show them why He was God.

So I'm challenging myself, and anyone else who is up for it, to step out on faith for those things which we are believing God for when they line up with the Word. Believe that if I'm supposed to do "X" and I see "Y" as an obstacle, God is bigger than the "Y" that I've allowed to stand in my way, and will not allow it to stand against His will for our lives. It may be finances, people, job/career, etc., but nothing is larger than the God I/we serve and I/we need to start operating as if I/we believe that.