What are you afraid of?

This is a guest post by fellow minister and friend Matt Boudwin from The Fountain Of Life Center in New Jersey.  

Are you afraid of the dark... or maybe the Boogieman?

Everyone seems to fear something different, some people even boast that they are fearless.

I think that's just a cover up... but anyways, I digress.

I remember one time when I was younger I was at a Labor Day festival. At this festival people wove in and out of rows upon rows of someones old used junk, searching for some useless piece of treasure to fill their living rooms with. (Next week probably regretting they spent any money on what they thought at the time was unique.) 

As I was wandering thru the seemingly endless rows of stuff, I laid my eyes upon the most treasured of ALL 90's kids possessions: a life sized G.I. Joe action figure.

I ran towards the table where Joe was sitting on an old rocking chair and I was greeted by the most hideous creature I had ever seen... A clown! I was so startled that I froze.

There I was, in the midst of hundreds of people revolving around these tables like bees in the hive; FROZEN. I could not even turn my face away. I was immobilized. The clown lurked closer and handed me a balloon animal. I believe it was a dog or maybe a giraffe, whatever it was, it was mutated just like my makeup covered friend.

As the oddly shaped balloon left the clowns hands it promptly popped in my face! Which sent my young brain into a tunnel of terror which I could not escape. The devilish clown thought this was the funniest thing to ever happen. His or Her smile grew larger than I thought humanly possible and IT laughed as if it had just heard the funniest joke of all time. The clown promptly skipped away as if nothing had happened...

As my grandmother walked me towards the table I couldn't even communicate to her what had actually caught my eyes in the first place.

Needless to say, I left that even traumatized and G.I. Joe-less.

I HATE CLOWNS.

Have you ever wanted something so badly but alls that seems to happen is clowns get in your way? Maybe some other fear is gripping you from reaching your destination or goal.

Do not let fear grip you.

It will immobilize and destroy your opportunity for achieving what God wants for your life. After all Fear is only a distraction. It is the Enemy's way of pulling your focus off of the prize that is before you. Hopefully stopping you dead in your tracts long enough for you to lose sight of the prize.

Maybe there is a situation that your facing right now where fear of failure or fear of not being good enough is stopping your progress.

Remember that the God who created everything... is on your side and He is obligated to protect those that love Him.

Psalms 118:6 says "The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?"

Time to take out the clowns in your life. Conquer fear with the Word of God.

Blessings,

Rev. Matty B

What are some of the clowns in your life? Click here to comment.

Stretched

Have you ever felt stretched? You know, the kind of stretching that makes you feel like your going to break!

Well, I have too in different seasons of my life. Most recently, I too felt like I am being stretched beyond what I could bear. Recently I had to move unexpectedly again, and I keep telling myself "this is getting old". Yet during this transition that I am still on, as I was taking a shower the other morning, I heard God speak to my heart. Here is what he said, "I am stretching you, I want to see if your flexible enough so that I may take you to the next level". It sounds deep in fact it is, but I assure you it hurts. It looks like nothing is happening while your being stretched, but I assure you as well, if you are experiencing something unexpected in your life, God is getting you ready for what is to come.

God is not done with you. He is writing a story with your life. This awesome story fits into what he is doing in this generation. You were created by him and for him, and he has a purpose for your life. During this time of yet another transition, I remind myself of how God has helped me before. Always look back at how he has helped you.

If he did it before, he could do it again.

I am reminded that during other detours in my life, God has always brought me through. I can go on and on, on his goodness and mercy. He has stretched me many times before and this stretching has done a couple great things in me that I believe will be done in this season of my life in an even greater way as well.

It broke me

We ask in our prayers we want to be more like Jesus and less like ourselves. Yet we must understand that in order for this to happen, he must break us. We love the idea of living for Christ yet hate the idea of dying to self. Yet doing all God has for us in this life, we must surrender to him and allow him to break us.
But what I love about God is that he doesn't break you for the sake of breaking you. He breaks you to remake you into a more powerful, dynamic, loving person. He makes you to be more like his son.

Propel me

This stretching also propels you to the next level. After he stretches you, you will never be the same again. You will never think, or talk like you use too. Now, you are on your way to another level. As he is launching you back, I encourage you to hold on to him, because He's about to launch you to a different place of purpose and of destiny!

Grows me

Every season is exactly that, a season and I believe it is God's ultimate plan to grow you in every season regardless of your age. If you are breathing He is not done in your life. Rather than fight your way in life, trust your way through life. Place your confidence in him who loves you and wants you to succeed in everything you do. Everything he allows in your life, will work out for your good and for his ultimate purpose.

You will shine like never before, and once you get into the new level, look back, give God glory and get ready to be launched again. Nothing he does in your life is wasted, and that my friend is the confidence that keeps me moving. He is a genius for lack of better words. He's got you right where he wants you. I belive if you feel like your being stretched, maybe you should answer this question,

 Are you flexible for what he is about to do in your life? Click here to leave a comment.

Get ready. 

Step Aside

This is a guest post by a fellow minister and friend, Antwain Braggs. I hope you are encouraged to allow God to work out his perfect plan in your life. For more information follow his ministry at www.crossoverinternational.org

We have become pro’s at juggling things that God never told us to juggle. I recognize that this is an effort to help God execute His plan for our lives but it actually prevents us from experiencing the fullness of what He has prepared for us before hand.

My life has been a series of failure and successes all tangled up together ultimately working for my good yet I must admit that it would have been a lot better had I not decided to pick up occupations, relationships, ministerial opportunities and friendships God never approved of from the beginning. These were all signs that I was afraid to step aside and allow God full reign in my life! I found out that if I am going to reach destiny without losing the strategies I picked up on my journey I must learn the art of Stepping aside.
If we lose the strategies before reaching our destination it defeats the purpose of getting to the stage. The Holy Spirit encouraged me this morning to share a few points with you and I am delighted to do so.

Stepping aside requires trust, humility, submission, and inner fortitude! Trust- trusting God with every detail of your life even when there are no signs that says He is presently orchestrating your every step!

Humility- Yielding over your will! Becoming co-dependent upon Him and emptying ourselves of former experiences that might cloud our ability to see the NEW!

Submission- Submitting to the Mission he has for you even in times of difficulty and despair.

Inner Fortitude- the strength that comes from within that is exercised by constant reminders of who we are in Christ… Phil 4:16 ( for meditation) Elder B

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Watch Your Step

In a recent business trip to California after leaving one of the conference sessions with two business partners of mine something weird began to happen. I felt like everyone was “trippin”. Yet while they were “trippin” I was learning a lesson.

This particular day we were on our way to grab some lunch; we had to go over to the other side where the restaurants were located. We began to walk but I wanted to get there faster so I wanted to cross through the street instead of walking to the corner and wait for the walk signal. My business partner looked at me with a grin on his face and strongly suggested we cross were we are supposed to cross as he grabbed his wife’s hands and both started laughing.  I asked, “ What was so funny?” John said well, “Darlene almost tripped and fell because we too tried to do this earlier this morning, but luckily I had her by the arm.” We joked about it, and then went on our way.

That evening as we finished yet another session at the conference we again went out for dinner. We decided to stay next to the conference center in the hotel where they had many restaurants. We sat by the automatic glass doors, and as we spoke to a lady we had just meet, one of the top executives in the company was walking by towards the doors. As he waved at us, I noticed he almost crashed right into the side of the doors, but his wife grabbed him by the arm and spared him an embarrassing moment. Nobody seem to noticed, we were nearly done our meal and right in front of the hotel a lady missed a step and fell face first into the ground. Happy to report she was okay. But I noticed three types of people that were there that day. These were three types of people that are probably in your life as well.

The first one is the people who saw her fall and did nothing. Unfortunately I fall into that category. I didn’t do anything but sat there and watch. The next group of people was the people who laugh at this lady who had fallen. To me it wasn’t funny. Yet the third group, which was only a few, was the group who helped her up and made sure she was okay.

In life you too will encounter 3 groups or types of people as you strive to become all who God created you to be. The first group will just observe what your doing and how you are living. They will watch how you talk and how you pursue what you believe God is called you to do.
 

The second will laugh and mock and criticize as you do what God has called you to do, build, start or whatever. But this group you need to ignore. You need to not pay much attention, for all they will ever do is watch at others progress to avoid looking at their own lives and improving it. Seeing how you strive and obey just magnifies how they are lacking and what they are not doing. Stay focus on the task you’ve been given.

The third and final groups are those people, pastors, leaders, friends and family who help you and lift you up even when you fall down. These are the people you need to connect with for these are the people who will help you reach your God given assignment. 

I hope you find people in your life that will encourage you and lift you up. I hope you get back on track even if you have tripped up. I hope you can understand that God is greater than any mistake or shortcoming you have experience. 

I hope you can understand that even in the “ trippin” moments you can learn valuable lessons that can change your life forever.

That is one of the lessons I’ve learned on that trip that I want to share with you but before I finish this blog here is one more, Watch where you walk, watch how you live, and most importantly watch your steps, for you have a destiny to fulfill.

How are you watching your steps? Click Here to comment.

Tired of waiting?

How waiting can be a benefit to your personal growth.

I don’t like to wait and you probably don’t either, yet as difficult as it may seem waiting is essential for our growth and development.

We all have to wait in certain moments in our lives. We have to wait for a doctor’s call. We have to wait for an email responds. We wait in lines at the grocery store. We wait in traffic for the green light. We wait for a prayer to be answered. We all have to wait.

 To me waiting is somewhat inconvenient. But waiting builds my patience and trust in God.

Have you ever had to wait for something you really desired to have right now?

See, if God grants us everything we desire, when we desire them we would be in bad shape. God is better interested in your growth and in your relationship with Him. God is interested in making you who hecreated you to be rather than who you want to be. (You can tweet that, maybe?) After all what good is it to live life and miss the real reason you were created for?  

To me, waiting is not sitting around doing nothing. I believe waiting is trusting God for the outcome. Waiting is also taking action. Do what you can do, and then rely on God for He will perform the miracle.

 You should be growing while you’re waiting. You might not have what you want to have, or  be where you want to be in life because your waiting for an outcome, but while waiting allow God to mold your character and your emotions when you allow him to develop you on the inside, it is far greater than growth on the outside. So when you get to “the place” where you desire you will be equipped and edified, strong and changed.

Growth

Here is a story to illustrate my point that I once read online. A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.
One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to squeeze its body through the tiny hole. Then it stopped, as if it couldn't go further. So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bits of cocoon. The butterfly emerged easily but it had a swollen body and shriveled wings. The man continued to watch it, expecting that any minute the wings would enlarge and expand enough to support the body, neither happened! In fact the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around. It was never able to fly.

How sad but true. Many people refuse to allow God to take them through the process of growth through waiting, so the go ahead and do it on their own and never really fully grow to be all who they were destined to be. Let us be the people who wait on God. Let us be the people who move as far as we can go and then trust God for the outcome. He knows what he is doing to grow us and develop us to full maturity.

Development

A pregnant mother knows that although this pain she feels as she carries new life inside of her womb; she must fulfill the usual 9 month pregnancy process for the full development of the baby. She can’t give up the process unless she aborts the life she carries. This new life comes through waiting. This new life comes through pain.  This new life is birth after the process of development and growth.

What will you believe God to do? What are you waiting for? What are you doing while you wait?

Click here I would love to hear from you.