The Road to Success (Part Two)

 

 

 

 

Yesterday we shared with you about the Road to Success According to Joshua 1:8: This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

 

We identified two areas in which we need to focus: Meditation and Obedience. Yesterday we talked about Meditation, today we discuss "Obedience".  God certainly wants to bless us, but we must be mindful that to every promise there is a condition. As we determine to meditate, to think and re-think on God's word; we must also apply His word to our lives. Joshua said, "then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success".

 

Deuteronomy 28 outlines multiple blessings that God wants to be stow on us; Deuteronomy 28:3-12, lists the many way God desires to bless us and ensure success:

 

 

³ The Lord will make your businesses and your farms successful.

⁴ You will have many children. You will harvest large crops, and your herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats will produce many young.

⁵ You will have plenty of bread to eat.

⁶ The Lord will make you successful in your daily work.

⁷ The Lord will help you defeat your enemies and make them scatter in all directions.

⁸ The Lord your God is giving you the land, and he will make sure you are successful in everything you do. Your harvests will be so large that your storehouses will be full.

⁹ If you follow and obey the Lord, he will make you his own special people, just as he promised. ¹⁰ Then everyone on earth will know that you belong to the Lord, and they will be afraid of you.

¹¹ The Lord will give you a lot of children and make sure that your animals give birth to many young. The Lord promised your ancestors that this land would be yours, and he will make it produce large crops for you.

¹² The Lord will open the storehouses of the skies where he keeps the rain, and he will send rain on your land at just the right times. He will make you successful in everything you do. You will have plenty of money to lend to other nations, but you won’t need to borrow any yourself.

Do you see how many times "successful" is used in this passage? God wants to bless and make us successful in everything we do.  However, He does ask for obedience. To obey is to carry out or follow a command. And that is exactly what God asks in verse 9: "If you you follow and obey the Lord, He will make you His own special people."

This road to success is a difficult and narrow one, we must hide the word of God in our Heart that we might sin against Him. (Psalm 119:11)

Deuteronomy 28:1,2 says: Today I am giving you the laws and teachings of the Lord your God. Always obey them, and the Lord will make Israel the most famous and important nation on earth, and he will bless you in many ways.  God has so much for us, let's be sure to align ourselves with His Word in 2014.

Be sure to keep God's Word in your mouth; meditate on it day and night and obey--follow and carry out His Word. Then you will be on the Road to Success!!!


Blessings!



The Road to Success (Part One)

Now that we are in 2014 many of us are focusing on how is to be successful and prosperous in everything we do! However we cannot be successful without God and His Word. Joshua 1:8 says: This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

I don't know about you, but I desire to be successful. I want to fulfill every single plan God has for my life. According to Joshua, in order to have a prosperous way and gain good success, the Word of God or "Book of the Law" cannot leave our mouths; we have to constantly be mindful and attentive to the Word of God. How can we accomplish this? Joshua said we must meditate on the word day and night and we must be obedient to what it says. This will be a Two-part blog, first I will share on meditation and then I will share on obedience. These two go hand and hand on the road to success.

To meditate is to think, to contemplate and/or reflect.  To meditate is to think and re-think on something.  Quite often it is the things on which we meditate that get us into trouble.  We meditate on the wrong things and they lead us into bad actions.  Our thoughts can truly overtake us, we will concentrate on a single thought for a long time and if it is not a good thought, that thought can lead us into sin.

Our thoughts lead us into our actions throughout the day.  Therefore, our thoughts must be on God and His word day and night; keeping our actions consistent with God and His will for our lives.  We must think and re-think on the word of God continually, in order to keep God’s word in our mouth.  Consider meditating on 2 Corinthians 10:5

Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity everything to the obedience of Christ. (KJV)                     

And every bit of pride that keeps anyone from knowing God, we capture people's thoughts and make them obey Christ. (CEV)           

Every time a bad thought comes to mind, meditate on this word.  Meditating on 2 Corinthians 10:5, is a good “rule of thumb” to remember; if you have a thought or if you imagine anything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bring it into captivity, lock it up and don’t let it go until that thought is obedient to Christ.  Lock it up until you are thinking things that you know without a doubt are glorifying God.  Keep that thought until it lines up with the word. 

We have a great need to give ourselves to Biblical meditation; staying aligned with God’s word in order to control the thoughts of our mind.  Psalm 19:4 says:

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight,
O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. (KJV)

No matter what your beliefs the reality is that everyday we are meditating on something.  And if we are not developing the skill of Christian meditation, we may find ourselves meditating on something destructive.  Please be careful on what you meditate. Be sure to meditate on the word day and night and you will be on "The Road to Success"

*Excepts from my book: "Why You Hatin?"

 

 

 

I Am Free!

It is freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened by the the yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:1 

 

Sometimes it is difficult to live in the freedom that Christ offers us. I recently received a comment on my last blog, "He Really Loves You". The comment was asking does God still love us even when we are not acting Christ like?

 

Even though Christ has set us free, sometimes we keep ourselves in bondage, because we are burdened by our thoughts that are keeping us enslaved.  We have thoughts that are limited to our frame of reference, limited to our experiences and our past pain.  But God's thoughts are not like ours, His thoughts have absolutely no bounds.  He is not enslaved with thoughts like we are. And when Christ died on the cross, he gave us the capability, not to have His thoughts, but to have a mind like His, because set us free completely.

 

We are free to walk in His love and forgiveness, even if that includes forgiving ourselves when feel undeserving.  Satan would have us carry every single burden in life, to walk around in defeat and sadness, because of mistakes we have made. But God would have to walk around in complete joy and freedom.  And when any burden gets too difficult for us, He even asks us to throw our cares on Him, because He cares for us.

 

We have a tremendous opportunity to walk in freedom through Christ! When my husband took his life, there was a yoke of slavery that jumped on me for a season, this yoke made it difficult to forgive myself. I was constantly burden with thoughts like,  "What could I have done to have stopped him?" "Should I have listened more?" "Should I have reached out more?" But at the end of the day, I realized my circumstances were not changing. I was not getting out of this prison. Finally I decided, if I did not forgive myself, I would never get to a place of healing. And if I allowed myself to remain in bondage, how could I help my daughters to see the glory of God even in the most difficult of situations?

 

Giving Jesus my hurt, pain and unforgiveness, put me on the road to freedom! Certainly, the pain did not go away over night, but I learned ways to grow and walk closer to God through my situation; without carrying heavy burdens that block for me from seeing the love of God.  I'm free! And in that freedom I am able to love others more freely and I am able to forgive more than I ever before. Because when Christ sets you free, you are free indeed.

 

Father, please help us to accept the freedom you have for us, help us to desire to walk in Your freedom and open our hearts to Your love. Because Your love has absolutely no bounds, no limits. And cause us to constantly remember, that You are always there and You want us to cast our cares on you. Thank You for Your love.  Amen.

He Really Loves You



And you may have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high,d e and how deep his love is. (Ephesians 3:18)

 

 

It is so amazing to feel loved! To know someone loves you completely! There have been times in my life when I have felt totally alone.  I thought to myself: "no one knows my pain, no one can relate with my suffering."

 

But when I read the words found in this passage, I am reminded exactly how much God loves me. There is absolutely no ending to His love for me.

 

Friends may give up on me and family members could easily get tired of me.  But God will always be there with His arms stretched out to receive me.

 

His love is deep, His love is unfailing and I am grateful.

 

"Father, teach me and give me the power to understand how wide,              

how long, how high and how deep your love is for me every day".

Amen.

 

  

 

Touch A Heart!!!

Every Monday at 5:00 p.m. (PST) we are on the air with "Touch A Heart Radio Show". It is our desire to discuss subjects that are difficult and at times tender to the heart.  Many struggle with life-long issues, pain, dissappointments and hardships, unfortunately there are many who suffer in silence.  There could several reasons for suffering in silence:

• No one to talk to
• Embarrassed
• Angry
• Don't have the words
• Don't want to talk

Through the "Touch A Heart Radio Show", we are reaching out and tackling those difficult subjects, such as: Abuse, Homosexuality, Suicide, Humantrafficking and the list could go on and on.

Our Commission to go teach and disciple others can be fulfilled in various ways, we believe through the area of media, it provides us with an avenue to reach out to those suffering and feeling they have no voice.

We have been touched to receive many callers and individuals writing sharing their heart; as well as their appreciation that we have this opportunity available. 

I know in my darkest hour, there were times, when I just didn't have the words, to express exactly how I was feeling.  The hurt was so deep, all I wanted to do is cry; crying was my release. But after the initial shock I was blessed to have dear friends and family that would allow me to talk and share everything that I was going through. There were no time limits to the our discussions.  I could talk to my heart was content; I was never turned away.

It is our prayer at Touch A Heart Radio to be a sounding board and help to those who find themselves in painful situations, but more importantly, we want to share that there is hope and victory in Jesus!  He is able deliver you out of any situation.

We have been blessed to have some awesome guests that have come on the show being very open and transparent.  It is comforting to know that someone has been where you are and not just that, but they survived.  Our guests have brought amazing testimonies of hope and deliverance.

When we began with the vision to "Touch A Heart and Change A Life", we knew we wanted to help those in need, but God knew a way to make it happen.  We are grateful to offer Touch A Heart Radio on every Monday Evening and we have vision to offer shows more frequently. 

I invite you to take a moment to listen to our recent show featuring Carla Cannon (Magazine Publisher, Best Selling Author, Christian Coach and Minister).  Her story will give you hope to overcome whatever you are going through.

Click here:  http://tobtr.com/s/4811573 and let us touch your heart.

Blessings!

Alesia G. Brown, President
Women's Worshipfest, Inc.

Stand in the Gap!

Ezekiel 22:30 says: "I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one." God is always looking for someone to stand in the gap.  Someone like Abraham, who sought God to save his loved ones in Sodom and Gomorrah; like Moses who stood for Israel time and time again and like Aaron who stood between the living and the dead to stop the plague. In these various situations the people were sinning and God wanted to destroy them, but these might men of God stood on behalf of those in sin.

Today we live in a society that is overcome with sin; every where we look so many have taken their eyes off God and gone their own way.  Now is the time when the children of God must stand in the gap.  Our prayer life must increase and we must go deeper into the presence of God.  We must draw nearer to God, seeking wisdom and guidance in order to reach those that are lost.

We cannot sit back and watch the destruction around us, we must rise up like the Prophets in the Bible! Sin is not new, throughout the Bible, we see how God's heart was broken when His people turned away from Him and began to follow other gods.  Its time for us to begin to bridge that gap and call on the name of the only true and living God.

We must bridge this gap through prayer and reaching out in love; we cannot turn our backs and act like we do not see the destruction that is happening in our land.

In 2 Chronicles 7:13, 14 God says: “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,  if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land

We are plagued with major issues in our society, abuse, human trafficking and criminal activity all around us.  The plagues we face can only be stopped by the help of God.  He is waiting for us to rise up and stand in the gap.  Let us commit to an intense prayer life and be faithful to seek His word for direction.

It is my prayer that the next time God looks for someone to stand in the gap for this land, He will find so many men and women on their knees praying for our land and truly seeking to be righteous before Him. God is calling His people to pray and to stand in the gap for this land. It's time to stand in the gap!

Miracles, Signs and Wonders!!!

Matthew 13:58 says: And he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. Jesus stopped doing miracles and wonders because the people did not believe.  Has Jesus stopped doing miracles and wonders through us, simply because we don't choose to believe that He can?

We pray, but are we praying with power and convictions? We have power in us to do great things; we have dunamis power (sign, miracles and wonders).  John 14:12 says: "Very truly I tell you, who ever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. "

I believe God is leading us into a time of REVIVAL like we have never known and He wants to do miracles through His people. It's time to completely surrender to Him. We must believe!

Let's put our trust and confidence in God and His power; so that He will continue to do great wonders in the lives of His people.

Let us surrender ourselves and allow God to stretch us like never before.  We must allow God to take us beyond our comfort zone.Let's surrender ourselves to the work of the Lord in our lives and choose to be amazed by the power of God displayed.

Acts 1:8 says:  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Walk in His Power, seeking signs, miracles and wonders.