JournalingForGod

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

God does not want to share reign in your heart with someone else. God loves you so much and wants to be with you. I love this because I’ve noticed this so much in my life. His zeal over his children!!!! He loves you and me, you can’t even imagine it or comprehend it. Sometimes we try to allow people and things to share reign in our hearts with God. God doesn’t want to share reign of your heart with anyone!! You were made for him and only him. You weren’t made to worship idols. He is the only true God, he is the Lord of Lords. No one compares to him, no love is greater than his. We human beings don’t understand that the things placed in our lives aren’t meant to complete us but rather to be an addition. God is the only one who completes us. We are whole when we are in oneness with the Father. Your friends, husbands, wives, and families don’t complete you, God does. The promises and desires of our hearts don’t complete us, he does. You aren’t complete when what you’ve longed for has come to fruition. You are truly complete when you have God in your life. Everything else should be an addition to what you already have. Everything else that comes after God should just be an addition to what you already have in God. You aren’t happy once you get married. You aren’t loved once your partner or friend says they love you. You aren’t whole once you have a degree or a family. No! You are truly whole once God reigns over your heart. When God sees that you are allowing something other than him to reign over your heart, he stops that real quick. God loves his people so much! But sometimes we his creation turn our backs on him. We choose to follow and sometimes worship idols that are not our Father. Please don’t let anything other than our Father in heaven to reign over your heart. That is something i want to plant in your hearts truly. Nothing compares to the love of God! In God’s zeal he loved us so much he had to send his only son on the cross for our sins, so that the separation between God and his creation could be mended. We need to put him first and at the center of everything! God loves you so much he wants communion and intimacy with you. He doesn’t give up chasing after you, that’s how much he loves you. When it should be the other way around. We should be chasing after him so much because we are the creation. Our spirits yearn for the Father, but sometimes we live more in the flesh that it doesn’t allow us to be where our Father is at. Sin separates us from the Father, but in Gods zeal over us he created a Savior to bring us back home. He made Jesus stand in the gap that sin made to separate us from the Father.

To the person reading right now… I just wanted to take the time to pray for you in this moment. I pray that…

1. You may know that you are so wanted and loved.

2. You may receive the truth that can truly set you free.

3. You may get to know the Father that made a way so there wouldn’t be a separation between you and him.

4. When times get hard you may look up to the sky and realize you are not alone.

5. You may truly comprehend that Jesus is enough…

6. You receive peace that surpasses all understanding.

7. You receive healing…

8. You walk by the Spirit…

9. You receive the fruit of the Spirit which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control and understand that against such things there is no law.

10. You sleep in peace tonight knowing that God is working for your good.

11. You crucify your flesh.

12. You walk by faith and not by sight.

13. You let go of in this moment! Anything! That may be hindering you from being intimate with the Father…

14. You may live in Wholeness with the Father.

Finally… I pray that you may truly accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. And that you may fully understand he is the truth, the way and the life… 😊

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I don’t think you guys understand how powerful your mind is. The mind can get you to believe the craziest things. I firmly believe that the mind is one of the tools that the devil likes to use to paralyze people. He likes to use that to stop peoples purpose in God. When people victimize themselves the mind is where it’s usually rooted from. If I’m honest this has been one of the primary ways the enemy has attacked me. We can’t let our minds wander, we must keep it fixed on Jesus. Whenever our mind gets overwhelming, we need to submit under the authority and feet of Jesus. God tells us this specifically…

“Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth.”
‭‭Colossians‬ ‭3‬:‭2‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

I love this verse because God is telling us to keep our minds focus on things above. On what is heavenly, on godly thoughts. We need to focus on God, on his ways. We should be thinking about pleasing God. I firmly believe that the battles are won in the mind. We don’t need to know everything! Neither do we need to understand everything. We will never be able to fully comprehend God, but that’s why he left us with a beautiful tool; faith. Faith is believing in the unseen, faith is trusting that God will do what he says in his word. If I want to instill something in your mind today is do not allow the enemy to roam free in your mind. That’s another thing, sometimes we blame the enemy. But the enemy isn’t that clever, he uses the same techniques and ways to make us fall. We just need to stop exchanging with him. Set your minds on things above. Meaning focus on what he says in his word, worship him, pray, follow him. The word is more powerful than we think. When our mind says something that does not align to God, give it to God. Recite a verse and remind yourself of Gods truth. Please don’t stay in your mind it could be so dangerous, leave it in Gods hands.

Let’s not take Gods grace for granted. Just because Jesus has forgiven you for all your sins, it does not mean you should continue to sin. Since we know this truth, we need to be more grateful. We need to live a life of thankfulness to God for saving us. We have new life in Jesus now. We don’t have to sacrifice a lamb for each of our sins, like back in the days. God sacrificed one lamb on the cross of Calvary to save all of humanity. But unfortunately, sometimes we can be very ungrateful. We live life carelessly and selfishly. I say that because I’ve realized that sometimes I live like this. Jesus did such an impacting and life changing thing dying on the cross for our very own sins. That’s something to be extremely grateful for. Sometimes because we know Jesus has already forgiven us for our sins, we take it lightly and keep on sinning. That wasn’t the reason why Jesus died, he didn’t die so you could keep sinning. God knew that we were imperfect and he was tired of having a separation between his creation. We don’t understand the depth of what Jesus did when he died on the cross for you and for me. We need to comprehend that we did not and do not deserve for God to give us mercy and grace through Jesus. We didn’t deserve redemption, forgiveness and love. But in knowing this truth, it should be more of reason that we live for Jesus truly. It should be more of a reason to live a life of gratitude to God. It should be more of a reason for us to strive to live a life free from sin. I learned this great saying “a true follower of Christ does not practice sin”. When you have truly accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you no longer intentionally sin. It should not be in your heart to want to sin. You should be continually allowing the blood of Jesus to cleanse and renew you… We need to fix our hearts towards Jesus, it’s the least we could do for all that he has done. We are unworthy and undeserving, but still he sacrificed it all for us. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is…

I find it interesting how God really uses those who people don’t think are capable of being used. If God can use a rock he most definitely can use anyone. 2 Corinthians 12 speaks a lot about allowing God to work through our weaknesses. Paul pleaded to God 3 times to remove the thorn in his flesh. I imagine to him he believed that it was the very thing that made him really weak. The thing is sometimes we humans think we are indispensable. We tend to get boastful or prideful and God never wants us to think our very own hands did it. God uses us but at the end of the day it’s done by his power, might and will. We are just part of his plan, we aren’t God. You don’t know how many times I’ve seen people not think others are capable of doing something. Based on their past mistakes, weaknesses, etc. I love God because he proves people wrong, always ! All God needs is for a person to be low in Spirit.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭3‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

God is clear, the Kingdom of Heaven belong to those who humble and surrender themselves before God. When you are poor in spirit that means you are bringing yourself low before God. That means that person is giving their lives to God. That they are humble before God and understand they can’t without him. We can’t judge who God wants to use. You may think they aren’t capable but God knows they are, because it’s not them! I use to judge myself so roughly, before it was hard for me to formulate words according to what I was trying to say. I didn’t doubt that God was capable of using me. I doubted in me being capable of being used by God because of my weaknesses. I doubted so much about myself, I couldn’t speak, sometimes it would be hard for me to understand things, and I can go on… But the very thing that I believed would stop me and make me incapable of unqualified, my weakness, God made me strong in. He helped me be better at it, he wanted me to know and comprehend that he’s the one who did it! Through him I am made strong, and that’s the way it’s always been. God can use your weaknesses, in fact he wants to use it to glorify himself. He wants to show the world that it’s nothing we could ever do but it’s him through us. If you read the word of God you will read a lot of the biggest people God used had weaknesses. We need to understand that it’s all Gods doing not our own hands.

Don’t put yourself in position for sin… If we let our guards down we can easily be fooled. Sometimes temptations are really strong. Which is why God left us powerful tools, because he knew we would struggle with sin in this world. But a true follower of Christ does not practice sin. Now since we Christians don’t or shouldn’t be practicing sin, it doesn’t mean we won’t be tempted. Of course we are going to be tempted we live in a sinful world. But that’s why we need to constantly be renewing ourselves in Jesus with the Holy Spirit. The word of God says we need to constantly die to our flesh. We must read the word daily, that way when we are tempted we can back ourselves up with the word of God. When you feel like you can’t, get on your knees and surrender. Talk to God, tell him how you feel and plead for help. Temptation is no joke and I completely get that. I’ll be the first one to raise my hand and tell you it’s really hard. But that is why we can’t put ourselves in position to sin. If you know something tempts you why are you putting yourself near it. If you have friends that love to party and get completely wasted, why do you attend the party with them? Sometimes we think we are too strong, but God is clear in the word..

“Therefore let the one who thinks he stands watch out that he does not fall.”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭10‬:‭12‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

I like this version as well..

“So beware if you think it could never happen to you, lest your pride becomes your downfall.”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭10‬:‭12‬ ‭TPT‬‬

We need to be careful because sometimes we think it won’t happen to us. We become too confident and we put down our guards. We need to be constantly watching out because the devil comes prowling like a lion to kill, destroy and steal. Don’t think you are not capable of falling or failing. We are all not perfect, if we don’t watch out we will be harmed. Our Spirits, souls, minds, salvations will be wounded/put in jeopardy. The Bible tells us to flee from sin. The Bible also tells us,

“And if your right hand is causing you to sin, cut it off and throw it away from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭30‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

Now, God is not telling us to literally cut off our hand. What he is trying to tell you is to cut off the very thing that is making you sin. You know the very thing that leads you to sin, remove it from your life. If you need to put boundaries, put them. Its better than letting it cost you your life. It’s not worth keeping because at the end it’s only going to harm you, it’s going to cost you your salvation. Those who are living in sin will not go to heaven, God is clear. You have to repent, meaning turn away from that sin and live in holiness. That’s not to say that you won’t fail, but you shouldn’t be making that same sin consistently. You have to confess your sin, and turn completely away from it. It shouldn’t be something that is a part of your way of living. Don’t give the devil an ounce of room to make you fall. Know what leads you to temptation and run! Don’t touch it, neither go near it. Please don’t think you are too strong to withstand it.

We must be protective of our salvation. Salvation is an individual thing. Just because someone else believes in God it doesn’t mean you will be saved. You have to truly in your heart believe in Jesus Christ. In Gods word it states… “For what does it benefit a person to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?”
‭‭Mark‬ ‭8‬:‭36‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬. God has created an order and balance for everything in life. Sometimes we human beings do too much!! Our intentions are good, but the way we execute things sometimes are erroneous. We can help people, love and lead them closer to God. But if you loose yourself what’s the point. In trying to help others don’t forget about your own help. Your life needs attending as well. Yes, we are called to be selfless and help others. But we are also extremely called to take care of our salvation as well. How are we going to help others if we don’t first help ourselves. If we don’t it would be like the blind leading the blind. You need to be constantly filling yourself up with God. Keep learning and growing so you can help others. It’s a constant cycle, God pouring from his cup into our spirits, the Holy Spirit constantly emptying out all that is not from God. Then it goes around and around. We keep growing, getting closer to God and God is constantly removing all that is not from him. Now in order for others to receive the same thing, we need to constantly be doing that. We can’t pour from an empty cup because then it won’t cause any change.

So I just want to motivate you, in trying to help others. Don’t forget that your plant needs watering as well. You need to focus on growing with God primarily. You help others first by first filling yourself up with the true source. Plus how can you be the example if you aren’t first being the example. Don’t tell people to seek God if you aren’t yourself doing it first. Then we would be hypocrites and false leaders.

We need to stop pausing for distractions. God calls us to keep going, stay focused. Whatever is of God will fall in line to your walk. You won’t have to pause to get to it, as long as your in the will of God it will fall in place. We keep making pitstops because we keep allowing things that don’t belong in our walk with God to draw our attention. Worse part we know clearly that we shouldn’t be flirting with it or paying attention to it, but we still do… If we go deeper to what flirting means, let me give you a couple definitions that google states. 1. behave as though attracted to or trying to attract someone, but for amusement rather than with serious intentions. 2. deliberately expose oneself to (danger or difficulty).”the need of some individuals to flirt with death”. I wish you could see my reaction for the second one… That one is rough, deep and strong. Sometimes we do flirt with sin and we do that by pausing and playing around with it for too long. Sometimes we don’t realize that we make a pitstop for sin… We know sin leads us to death, we know it kills our relationship with God and brings us away from his presence.

Still, God is so merciful and redirects us to him. But we should just listen clearly the first time and keep walking. I remember when I was so fixated on an idea that I knew wasn’t the right time. Something I knew God didn’t want my attention on right now. I was trying to handle it or control things on my time. I remember crying out of frustration and my heart was so sadden. I remember God say clearly… he said it in Spanish “recoge tu barra y sigue caminando” translates to “pick up your rod and keep walking”. That ministered so much to me because I felt in my heart that he was telling me, keep going. You are not done, you’ve got a race to finish. Keep walking and don’t get distracted…

In Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Therefore, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let’s rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God”.

The Bible tells us this for a reason, as we are running this race in life we need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. The way we are going to finish this race is if we keep running. We can’t allow things that will only distract our race to have way. Okay maybe we sinned, are you going to stop and dwell on it.. Or maybe we’ve been entertaining something that we know right now is not part of our race. Sometimes we focus on things that keep our attention for too long. We should keep moving forward and not focus on the past. We should be growing and growing… We should not be staying in our sins… We should be healing, changing and being fruitful. We need to stop making pitstops where God doesn’t call us too. We need to know and understand what God is calling us to do. Maybe you relate to this, maybe you’ve felt like you’ve been entertaining the wrong things in this season of your life. But I say to you like my Father in Heaven said to me “recoje to barra y sigue caminando…” . You got this! Keep persevering and don’t give room to distractions.
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I want to encourage someone today. God is working and never stopped working. I read this verse and it impacted my life so much…

““Behold, I am going to do something new, Now it will spring up; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭43‬:‭19‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

God is making all things new. He is making paths for you to walk, even when it looks like nothing is happening. My God never stopped working and will never stop working. We need to start being steadfast in him. When has he ever failed us ? Maybe it’s taken longer than we’ve expected. Maybe it hasn’t happened in our timing, but trust me my God knows all things. He is alpha and omega, beginning and the end… Meaning he knows all things, he’s everywhere at all times. He was there since the beginning of time and will be here until the end of time. If we are being honest we don’t deserve anything coming our way. Time and time again God is preparing way for people that sometimes don’t even appreciate him. Sometimes we can get so selfish, fixated on what we want. But have you stop to think, what does God want…? God says in this verse “Will you not be aware of it?”… I don’t know about you but that is powerful! Will you not be aware of it, I have to say that again… Sometimes we aren’t aware of what God is doing because we are so focused on our selfish desires… Sometimes God is simply waiting for our hearts to turn to him. He wants to give you the blessing but more than that, he wants you to get to know him. He wants you to trust, love, and exalt him. If we are being honest sometimes we don’t even deserve for God to do something new in our lives. Sometimes we don’t even deserve for God to make roadways in the wilderness for us. Sometimes we don’t deserve for God to make rivers in the dessert. We complain and complain instead of remaining still… Sometimes we don’t allow ourselves to pause and ask our Father in heaven “What are you doing right now Father, what are you doing in me right now… May I not miss this moment”. God is preparing way for you, he is making everything new. But will you miss what he is doing in the moment…?