JournalingForGod

I think that sometimes we try to rush or jump our seasons. We need to enjoy the season and state that we are in. In every moment God is trying to show us something.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 reads, To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

I believe and have seen that sometimes we can be so impatient… I read this quote that impacted me a lot “You are so in your head with where God is taking you that you can’t even enjoy where he has brought you”. That hit me so hard because we are so like that!! We don’t enjoy every step God takes us. We just see what we want to see. It hit me really hard the other day because while I was at church God used the speakers to minister this to me. We don’t appreciate where God has brought us out of. The things he’s helped us go through. Our old ways he has taken us out of. The things he’s helped us heal from. The places he has brought us to. I’ve realized that literally every moment that I have gone through in my life, the Father has not allowed any of it to be wasted. Now that I’m on the other side I see what he was trying to do all along. We don’t thank him enough and pause to see what he’s already done. Some of us felt so alone, unwanted, rejected, dumb, angry, resentful, etc. Now that we have defeated those giants through Jesus Christ, we don’t think to take a pause and thank God that he helped us endure them. There are moments where in our lives we’ve been at our lowest and he was the only one there…. He rescued us, he redeemed us, he freed us. Now maybe your season looks different, but everyone has gone through a season. Some people have seasons where they feel like they can’t hear, see and feel God clearly. Some people are in a season where they see others have what they long for, but have to learn to be thankful anyway. Some people are in a season where their friends are dating and they don’t have someone, but they still have to be happy for them. Some people are in a season where they have to unlearn everything they are used to knowing. Some people are in a season of finding themselves in God. Everyone has gone through and will go through a season. My point is we need to enjoy every season and stage in our life. In the process, in the waiting, in uncertainty we must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. God is always trying to teach us something… Are we listening though…? In the season, sometimes it’s hard to understand where God is taking us or what he is doing, but the whole point of it is to trust in him… I’ve learned that some people have to hit rock bottom to learn, unfortunately we can be like that. Allow the Father to teach you in every season… If you are in a season where you see everyone around you have what you long for, be grateful. Be grateful that although you aren’t there yet, you believe that he’s getting you there. Be thankful for God has already given us so much! If we can’t be grateful of the little things, how can we possibly appreciate the big things… We can be so selfish sometimes, we just want more and more and more and more. Think clearly, pause and realize that he’s already given us so much !!

We need to start being grateful for when God uses us. He can use us if he pleases to. We can be easily replaced, we must never think that God won’t do his will if we aren’t there. God continues doing his will whether you are in it or not. You don’t know how many times I have heard people say or think God won’t continue his plan if a specific person is not there. If God can use a rock he can use anyone and anything he pleases. God uses us out of his pure grace, love and mercy for us. But let us please not get it twisted, just like God can easily put us in a position, he can easily take us out as well… God is so beautiful man, even when we don’t deserve it he still blesses us. What I’ve noticed about our Father is that the heart is so important to him… I think that’s the reason why God has used me and blessed me so much. You ask me… I am literally so undeserving of everything that I have and have been given. But I think God has always seen my heart for him. I say this because I feel like I’ve done a lot of things wrong, I’ve failed him so much. But God has seen me past my mistakes… More than having works and doing so much, he’s more focused on our intentions in the process of doing… The Bible speaks about the heart 830 times, this clearly tells us that it’s so important. We need to check the state of our hearts. None of us can run away from God, God sees so deep into our hearts… He loves us, he wants to use us, but more than that he wants a relationship with us. I don’t know about you but the fact that the Father wants me and sees me…. Is so important!!! Yes! It’s amazing that the Father wants to use us, but we shouldn’t use him for what he does or gives us. We should serve him because we fear, love and want to please him. For who he is, for how he has saved us! The fact that the Father wants to use us even when we don’t deserve it, when everyone else saw us as nothing…. He is to be praised man! To think that God can’t do his thing if we aren’t there… shame on us… We should be the ones fixing ourselves and being grateful that he even wants to use us… People who have sinned and have fallen short of his glory, who still do sometimes as well.

I think this topic is so important! Sometimes we let life and situations drift us from having a relationship with God. The things in life that we do are so important, I can’t deny that. A lot of us have families to take care of, jobs to work, ministry, personal goals, etc. But the thing that we don’t realize is that without God we wouldn’t have even gotten there in the first place. We ask and ask God for all these blessings, he gives it to us and then we completely forget about him. What we don’t comprehend is that God never intends or intended for us to allow the blessings he’s given us to be our god. If it took having God in our lives to get there, what makes us think that we can continue without him. If he’s the way we even got to be successful in it, what makes us think we can continue without him. We need to keep in constant communication with God. We need to be constantly feeding our spiritual lives. We need to be setting aside time for simply being in Gods presence. We need to make room to simply hear Gods voice. Without asking, without doing anything… simply remaining still…. I say this because yes in life we all have so much to do. But God wants us to have a balanced life. We give and give time to other people. We put in time to bring people to God, forgetting that we also need to bring ourselves to God. Not only do people need God, but we ourselves need God…

In Luke 9:25 it’s clear, “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?”.

We ourselves need the savior… it’s great that we want to help people but if we ourselves aren’t being refined as well, what does it matter! We need to fill ourselves with God. We need to read the word more. We also need to surrender our lives to God. We need saving… through Jesus Christ. Let’s not let life consume us and let’s not forget that without God we are nothing!

This is something that I want to emphasize to you guys in this day. We need to be rid of all evil. Now, we can’t do this by ourselves… we need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us. We need to ask God for the blood of Jesus to come and cleanse us. Everyday we need to be crucifying our flesh… There are going to come temptations and thoughts, but we can’t allow them to reign in our lives. Who you let reign shows who you allow to govern your life. If you allow the flesh to govern your lives, it will reflect in the type of fruits you bear. If you are a lustful, angry, impatient, jealous, self-righteous person. Now if you allow the Holy Spirit to reign in your lives it will reflect in the type of fruits that you bear. You will bear joy, patience, goodness, self-control, etc… Before Christ came into our lives truly, we had so many wicked things in us. In us were not good things, we were such terrible human beings. I don’t know about you but I could attest to this 100%. Before Christ I was so ugly inside. I was full of anger, unhealed traumas, jealously, low self-esteem, lonely, etc! But Christ man! Christ healed me, cleansed me, transformed me, loved me, made me righteous before God. I still have things that I need to work on because I’m not perfect, but it’s about actively working on them. Sometimes we need to allow the Holy Spirit to dig deep in us because sometimes we have hidden filth. Sometimes we are those people who hide certain things under the rug. I remember when I was little, and I know I’m not the only one who has done this. But my mom used to tell me like a good mom, clean your room. I would throw everything under the bed and closet to hide my mess, so I wouldn’t have to clean it thoroughly. When my mom came into the room she knew truly, that I hadn’t cleaned my room… Sometimes we are like that with God, we try or so we think we can try to hide certain wounds or habits that don’t align to his will in us. We try to hide things that we know cannot be in us if we want to truly be in God. God sees all things, he sees things that we can’t. He knows the inner most parts of his creation. In us are some wicked things man. I find it beautiful how the closer we get to God, the more we understand how unworthy and undeserving we are before him. The closer I get to God the more I recognize that in me needs so much changing/cleansing. In us there are things that are not of him, and must be removed! We can be so selfish sometimes, we want what we want for our own benefit. It’s not about us, it’s about God! One of my favorite chapters in the Bible is Psalms 51…. You know how powerful that chapter is!!! Here are some verses I won’t say all of them because it’s long, but it is so beautiful and genuine.

”Wash me thoroughly from my guilt And cleanse me from my sin. For I know my wrongdoings, And my sin is constantly before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.“
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭51‬:‭2‬-‭4‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

You don’t know how much I would cry reading this chapter in the past. Please pause and take a minute and read that whole chapter if you can… It is so beautiful and real, because this is literally us. We can be so wicked sometimes before God. Sometimes we sin unintentionally and intentionally, failing God… We must let go and allow Jesus Christ to truly be in our hearts. Once we understand that truth forreal, our whole life changes completely… In us needs cleansing, we need to be purified, sanctified and transformed for God. Evil and God do not go together. Rid yourself of ALL evil church… So we can truly glorify God the way he calls us to… I love you guys, we can do this! We owe it to our Heavenly Father.

A lot of the times we like to play the blame game. We blame God for putting us in certain situations, when in reality we get ourselves into problems. We say God why did you allow this to happen..? But we don’t like to own up to our own actions. Something that irks me is when people say “if God is so mighty why did he allow this to happen”. People claim that they don’t want a controlling God, but when he gives us free will and doesn’t save us from our own mistakes he’s a bad God. We get ourselves into problems, we can’t only seek God or want God for him to save us. We have to seek him in the good and bad times… God gave us free will because he loves us. He gave us free will so we wouldn’t feel forced, because if it’s forced then it’s not love/choice/genuine. God gave us and left us his word so we can be led the right way. So we can live life the right way. Now it’s our choice whether to follow it or not, either way we choose we will reap the consequences. So let’s stop playing the victim card and own up to our mistakes. Let’s be wiser about our decisions in life. Let’s be founded on the rock which is Jesus Christ. Let’s make Christ-like decisions, not emotional or worldly decisions. Let’s be cautious about the decisions we make on our day to day lives. Let’s not mingle with sin but let’s be whole in Christ. So that we don’t have to get ourselves in situations that God has to save us from later. That’s the thing too people think that God doesn’t save us but sometimes he does. But then sometimes he has to let you fall because you are being too stubborn and you want your own way…. But let’s put God in the center of our hearts truly and let’s allow him to govern our thoughts, ways and lives. Let’s stop getting and putting ourselves in situations…

Ephesians 5:15-17

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is”.

Proverbs 16:9

The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.

This year God has really tested my faith in Jesus… So much has happened that has made me question if I am truly standing on the rock which is Jesus. I remember God giving me a word saying that my faith will be tested. Sometimes we get prophetic words that we think look a certain way, but then we come to realize this is what God really mean’t… God tests us to see if what we say we believe, we actually believe through our actions. We say we truly believe in God but then we show with our actions/words that we actually don’t believe in him. We need to be careful with believing everything we hear. I know this sounds crazy but even at church we need to watch out. God warns us in the word that there will be people that will pretend to believe, some even will be false prophets. Which is why you need to be truly rooted in the word… If you are not firmly grounded on the word, you will be easily swept away by anything that comes your way. We need to truly read the word and be planted on it. There will be many things and people coming our way to try to confuse us and test our faith in God. But we must remain and follow the truth.

I leave you with these verses, which speak for itself and are straight forward…

“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts on them, will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and its collapse was great.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7‬:‭24‬-‭27‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

Let’s be rooted on Jesus and his words… Don’t be easily swept by the world and their ideologies. Be rooted on the truth which is only found in Jesus Christ.

We need to learn how to read the word. I really want to emphasize this on this blog because it is so important. Many people take the word out of context. Biblical theology is focused on the teachings of the individual authors and books in the Bible. It presents the Old and New Testament writers theological teachings within their historical setting. It shows how the the Old Testament had to happen so that the New Testament could be completed in Jesus. The Bible is so deep, God can reveal so much to you through it !! Before you read you need to pray to God to give you revelation. It’s so beautiful how some people stay for a while on each book or verse because God has so much to say through it. The word is not like any other book, in fact it’s more than a book. It’s Jesus himself, he is the word… He is the truth, the way and the life. I emphasize that we need to becarful reading the word because I feel like now a days people twist the word of God to their own convience. The word was never intended for that, the word was intended for us to be transformed from our wicked ways. The word was given so that we could be redeemed and live a new life in Jesus Christ our Savior…. The life our Father in Heaven always intended us to have. Since many people don’t know how to read the word, they take things out of context. We need to read the word carefully and understand its background. We need to understand the times and why the writer said what they said. Understanding that everything that was said in the word was influenced and given by the Holy Spirit. Yes God used man to write the Bible, but it was He who gave the words. Let us never twist that and try to negate that God is the author of the word. This blog is so important to me because a lot of times we depend on man to tell us what God says. No, when we hear a preaching, or hear someone/anyone talk about the word of God, you need to go on your own and study it. Human beings can fail and they might be wrong on what the word is truly saying. That’s why you have to ask God for his revelation, what is he trying to show you and tell you. I also believe that God won’t ever contradict himself, he does not! Don’t be complacent or satisfy about hearing what people say about the word, you go yourself to the word and study it. Make sure God is revealing it to you the same way.

We need to stop giving Satan all the credit for our mistakes. Satan has no power over us when we are truly in Jesus. In fact we give that power up to him. How? By putting ourselves in places we shouldn’t be in. By putting ourselves in situations we shouldn’t be in. By putting ourselves in conversations we shouldn’t be in. We interchange with Satan and we need to understand that. Satan will always be out there to try to influence you to do his will. But we need to be firmly rooted in Christ and follow him. More than focusing on not doing bad we should be following Christ because he guides you. God is so beautiful because he doesn’t ask you to do it alone, he helps you while you are in the pursuit of his son Jesus. We need to take captive our thoughts and submit it under the authority of Jesus. Our Father in heaven is all powerful!! It just depends on who you put your trust on. It just depends on who you serve. We can’t serve two masters says the word of God, we either serve the king of this world which is Satan. Or we serve the King of Heaven which is God. If you give your life completely to God he will help you govern your thoughts, hearts, and everything else in your life. I had to bring this topic because I hear a lot of say it’s the devils fault. Or this happened because of the devil. The devil only influences us if we allow him to. He can’t touch us or control us. We can’t allow him to have way in our life. The word of God says in 1 Peter 5:8-9, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. So resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brothers and sisters who are in the world. The word of God is literally warning us, we must stand surely in our faith. Yes we will go through things, but to the things that are in our control we must remain in God. Satan is literally prowling like a lion seeing who has their guard down because if your faith is weak that means he has a chance with you… Look at Jesus when he was tempted on the mount, he stood firm because he believed in and understood what our Father in heaven has said… We need to be firm in our faith in God and what he says in his word, that way we won’t be swept so easily, rather at all. Our decisions have a big affect on how our life goes. So let’s in this day stop giving credit to Satan. Let’s do better and live our lives completely for Jesus. It doesn’t mean we will be perfect but it does mean we will have a more fruitful life that God always intended us to have. Don’t give Satan the power or credit over your life! You are more than victorious in Jesus Christ, hold firm onto him.

Luke‬ ‭10‬:‭38‬-‭42‬: “Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. And she had a sister called Mary, who was also seated at the Lord’s feet, and was listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do the serving by myself? Then tell her to help me.” But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; but only one thing is necessary; for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

Sometimes we are focused on doing the most. Yes, God loves it when you serve and produce works. But he is more focused on having you be still in presence. He loves it when you pause just to be intimate with him. We get so focused on doing this and that. Everyday we are so focused on the next task. But we don’t simply take time to meet with our Father. We don’t take time to dwell on his word and to hear his voice. We don’t take time to pray and worship him. We don’t stop to thank him and dwell on everything he has done for us. I love this story between these two sisters because in life we become either or. We are either the people who choose to dwell in the presence of God. Or we become the people who get so distracted and miss what is truly important. Sometimes we are the people who think we will be saved because of our works, so we keep doing and doing. God is so beautiful that he wants to spend time with his creation. He wants to hear from you, he wants to pour more of him in you. He wants you to know his mysteries and be one with him. He wants to connect with you and pour his love upon you. He wants your cup to runneth over… He is such a beautiful Father that when there was a barrier between him and his creation that limited him from connecting to them, he had to create a solution. He had to create a solution that would reunify him with his creation, the ultimate sacrifice which was Jesus… God loved Mary’s heart, her heart was truly focused on spending time with the Father. These two woman showed two different postures in heart. One showed that she believed that God was more focused on what she thought she needed to do to please the Lord, which was “ do works”. The other showed that she believed that it was important just to pause and dwell in the presence of the Lord. Sometimes we think that God just wants us to do, do and do. But sometimes he just wants us to stay still and enjoy his presence. He just wants us to stop being distracted by life and speak to him. Also we don’t always need to ask and ask, we can simply worship and be thankful to God… I promise you have a lot to be grateful/thankful to him for.

I motivate you in this day to stop being distracted by life and simply dwell in the presence of the Lord. Stop doing too much… (Dwell…)

While on my way to work I was chatting to God. I realized that it’s so hard for us to be consistent sometimes. We want a nice body, we want a strong spiritual life, we want good grades, we want a savings account with a lot of money, and honestly the list goes on… But if we are honest, we strongly dislike to put In the work. We want a great body so we start working out for the first few weeks and than stop. In life you have to be consistent with all the things you do/want. Someone once told me when someone wants something they will put all their efforts into doing it. I firmly believe that, because I’ve seen it. Trust me I know it can be a lot to be consistent, but you can’t give up. You want financial stability, then be consistent in saving your money, change your habits. In order to be consistent in something you must change your habits. Let’s say you want to go to the gym at 5am, if you sleep everyday at 12pm you think that will motivate you to…? No it won’t! it will actually pull you even more down. A lot of times we ask God for a strong spiritual life, we want to get closer to God. But a lot of the times we are more consistent/quick to feed the flesh what it wants rather than what our spirit wants. We ask God for revelation in his word, we do good being intimate with God for a few days and than fall back into pleasing the flesh. Look, if I’ve learned something over my life, my flesh does not want to do what is good. My flesh does not want me to read the word, my flesh does not want me to take care of my body by going to the gym and eating better. But so what! I must die to my flesh and deprive it of what it wants. I want eternity and living in the flesh won’t get me there. Getting closer to my Father and living for Jesus will. So I must not think about the now and think about my future… if you don’t give up and keep going, you will make it. Right now you may not feel like doing certain things, but the more you do it the more you love it/get used to it and it won’t be as hard as it used to be. For example at my church we do 5am prayer every Saturdays in person, you know how tired I get by the end of the week. If I’m being honest I simply want to sleep in and do nothing. But I must die to my flesh, I need to wake up because it’s my responsibility. I have to get up because I have to sacrifice for my Father. I have to take time to be united and pray with my church because God calls me to be united to my family in Christ. I have to do it out of love for my God, honestly that’s the least I can do for my God. One day as I keep waking up I won’t be as tired, and my spirit will be more happy. My prayer life will be stronger than ever, the way I long for it to. I say that because in the past I would wake up for 5am and the way my prayer life grew, insane! I realized it was worth it and my spirit wanted more! I promise you may not see it at first, but it’s worth being consistent. You’ll get what you long for if you don’t give up, push through!

”Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be firm, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.“
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭15‬:‭58‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬