THE ROAD TO YOUR NEXT LEVEL OF INCREASE

I believe that there comes a point in our lives when God will call us and ask us to do more or be better than we are today.  God will ask us to step it up a notch, in order to take us to the next level of increase in any given area of our lives.  For me I am finding that whenever God ask this of me, it’s usually because I have first asked something of Him.  This actually is the case and happens to be the case currently in my life. 

At the beginning of this year I asked God to do some pretty tremendous things for me.  These things would ultimately promote me in every area of my life.  When God moves for me in these areas, everything in my life will be better.  I would be more productive and effective on my job, which would allow me to make more money, and also allow me to afford more choices for myself, and my family.  I would be enabled to help those people that I come into contact with that might be in need of financial assistance.  I would also be able to work on my personal career path and goals, as well as the organizational projects that God has put on my heart to develop.  When God actualizes my requests, I will be in better health and have more energy to act and to function in my purpose, overall I would be a much happier, stronger, more effective individual, enabled to live a greater quality of life.

When I asked God for these things I had no doubt in my mind that He could give them to me.  Really, in my mind as far as I was concerned, it was already a done deal.  After all that is what it says in (MARK 11:23) that whatever we believe in our heart and confess with our mouth without doubting, God will grant to us.   But then I started to feel some prompting from the Holy Spirit that God was starting to ask some things of me as well.   It started to become very clear to me; God had put it on my heart that He needed me to make some changes to my life in return.  Suddenly I realized that there might be more required of me in order to start achieving some of my more long range and therefore more challenging goals that I had set for myself and that I asked God to help me to achieve.  Amazingly enough, I had not even considered the possibility  that I might need to make some sacrifices on my end as well, and frankly it was more than I had initially bargained for.  But you know what they say, be very careful what ask for because you just might get it, and it usually it costs you much more than you ever planned to spend.

It’s also has been said that to whom much is given, much is expected.  And it had become apparent that God wanted me to make some immediate sacrifices in some areas of my life that would impact me in a seriously heavy way.  And it turns out that the areas of my life He was asking me to make sacrifices in were the exact same areas that I had asked Him to bless.   What a coincidence, right???? And I say that with much sarcasm in my voice, because even if I believed in coincidence, which I do not, I wouldn’t have believed that this was a coincidence.   As usual, God had a plan.  He was using these dreams of mine as incentive for me to work in order to help me develop spiritually, mentally, physically and intellectually.  I have to say, what I really find to be funny is God’s sense of humor though.  Because when I realized what He was doing, I remember saying to Him as I sat on my couch in my morning time of mediation with Him, “God I guess it just couldn’t be that easy could it?” And I could hear Him responding to me and saying, “Now Cherie you know me better than that by now don’t you? You know that in order for me to bless you by taking you to next level in all these areas of your life, you had to do the work, put the time in in order to grow stronger.   You must acquire the strength and maturity needed to maintain the level of blessings you are asking for.  It would be far too painful for you to reach such heights and not be able to handle it and to hold on to it.  And Without the discipline and maturity you get from learning and working through challenges, you may never achieve that.”

An example of this would be giving a large amount of money to a person with absolutely no experience handling money.  Let’s say that just for a moment, imagine that your 10 year old son won a million dollars in the lottery.  And as his parent you gave him the freedom to spend it as he saw fit.  He would probably bring home thousands of dollars of candy and toys.  He would spend money hanging out with his friends at amusement parks and other recreational places.  He might even try to buy the amusement park itself, who knows.  But you get where I’m going with this, a 10 year old doesn’t have the maturity needed to think about such things as planning and budgeting his money for the future.  A 10 year old doesn’t think about investing, he doesn’t have the life experience or the financial experience to even know that he needs to do these things.  If you gave a 10 year old a million dollars, no doubt, it would probably be gone in one month or less.  So in order to protect him from himself, as a parent we would hold it for him in a trust perhaps, or someplace secure, until he was mentally, and emotionally capable of taking care of it for himself.  As an act of love from a parent to a child we sometimes need to withhold certain things, even blessings, from our children, until they are able to handle them, and to protect them from themselves.  And as the ultimate loving, caring, omnipotent parent He is, God does the same for us.

Up until the point that the Holy Spirit laid these changes that God wanted me to make on my heart, I thought I understood what actions I needed to take in order to move forward with my dreams.  I thought I thoroughly knew what would be required of me, but what I was thinking was just the tip of the iceberg.  It seemed that everyday God revealed more and more of His will for me to me.  Layer by layer, He showed me the changes that I would need to initiate in order to reach the next level of goals in my life. And the more I learned the more I understood the meaning of the passage in the bible that states, “But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.” (MATTHEW 7:14). For me what stood out in that passage was that the road that leads to God, His choices and His purpose for our lives was indeed a narrow and sometimes a lonely one.  I also now understand why it is called” The Road Less Traveled”.  This road is traveled less because it is a much harder road to navigate, filled with decisions that are not always easy, fun or popular to make. There is no doubt in my mind now that it is the harder road, because it is inevitable that you will come to a place on this road where you will have to leave old habits and behaviors behind.  You will have to leave the baggage of unforgiveness, hatred, bitterness, enviousness and resentment.   And sometimes you will encounter pain, loneliness and heartache on this road, because not everyone is meant to travel on this road with you.  Unfortunately you will have to leave some loved ones, old friends and acquaintances behind.  This is not a road that is meant for the masses. 

So when God asked me to give up a few things, and to change some things about my life and my lifestyle; people, places and things that I knew I should have probably given up a long time ago anyway.  I made up my mind and I decided to say “Yes, yes Lord yes.  Because in this life we will all have pain, some of that pain is brought on by the fear of change and fear of the unknown.  Change is a part of life, a part of life that will surely come, that is a promise you can bank on, no matter who you are.  The only constant in life is change.  But growth is a choice, and as far as I’m concerned if I’ve got to experience the pain, I might as well benefit from it.  And as for me I would rather accept the pain of the circumstances set before me by God, knowing that I am under the awning of His tender loving care and protection, than the consequences I suffer from making my own foolish choices and mistakes.   I also know that this is a temporary pain and I will only feel it while I’m actually in the midst of going through those changes, challenges or setbacks.  But living with the pain of the regret, the pain of not accepting the challenges that God presents to me, in order to help me to grow into the person He has designed me to be, this type of pain last for a lifetime, and for me that is simply not acceptable.  I have learned that the benefits of doing things God’s way far outweighs the type of pain that comes from a lifetime of regret.

But if all of this sounds like way too much work for you to deal with, or if you are beginning to become apprehensive about merging onto this road or if you’re starting to think that this road may not be for you, don’t worry, there is good news.  The good news is that you do have a choice, and there is an easier road. But as always, nothing is perfect and there are still a few draw backs about this road as well.  For instance, while you will have more people there to travel it with you and to keep you company, it can get pretty crowded, and the traffic jams can be horrific.    The people that travel this road with you can often be described as, mean, cranky, harsh, discontented, jealous, moody, temperamental, gossipy and just plain ole nasty.  What else can they be when they are living in fear and stagnated in their existence?    And if that still doesn’t deter you, and you want to find this so called “Easy Street”, you won’t need directions because it’s not very hard to find.  You can find it by simply following the crowd, I’m quite sure that the majority of the people around you can lead you in the right direction.   But if you’re still having trouble finding it, just stick it in your GPS under its proper name; it’s called “The Road to Mediocrity”.

YOU'VE GOT THE POWER

Today I read a scripture that really touched my spirit very deeply.  Oddly enough it was a scripture that I had never read before.  I was lead to this and of course, presently I am going through a very similar circumstance.   God communicates with me this way frequently, and each time it occurs I am always grateful and amazed that He has time to pay attention to an insignificantly small life as mine, in comparison to all the matters in the world that must require His immediate and full attention.  But the verse I refer to comes from (Acts20: 19-38), but for the purposes of this blog, I will focus on verse 19-24.  The apostle Paul is addressing the Ephesians for the last time before he moves on to the town of Jerusalem and he pours his heart out to them saying, “I have done the Lord’s work humbly and with many tears.   I have endured the trials that came to me from the plots of the Jews.  I never shrank back from telling you what you needed to hear, either publicly or in your homes.   I have but one message for Jews and Greeks alike-the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus.”

Now for those of you who know anything about Paul, you know that he was by no means a soft man.  His name was Saul previously, and he was the man who used to torture and kill Christians, before being converted in a Christ follower himself.  But it touched me how he openly spoke about the pain, tears and sacrifice he had endured to fulfill the call that God had placed on his life.  He had been incarcerated, beaten and starved, all because he preached the message of turning to God and following in the footsteps of Jesus.  Paul now a reformed Christian was innocent of harming no one.  Since his conversion, the only crime he was guilty of was trying to encourage, teach, strengthen and guide others as he was instructed to do after the death of Christ.  He was just minding his own business, doing his thing, doing what he felt he was called to do.  In essence, he was living out his God given assigned purpose.

 Because he was being obedient to God and following the example that Jesus had set for him, one might think that by doing this, Paul would be protected from any attacks that “The Enemy” might send his way.  Maybe because he was such a great man of God that he might be given a “Hedge of Protection” around him, as was mentioned in the book of Job.  Satan had to ask God to remove it, just so he could attack Job, in the story told in the book written specifically about Job and Satan’s attack on his life.  Well maybe no one else out there thought that, but I know that I surely did.   

I thought that because I, like Paul was minding my own business, living and doing the Lord’s assigned bidding on my life, and because I was praying, trusting, believing, acting, speaking in faith and trying as hard as possible to love, help and encourage people around me, that I would somehow be protected or exempt from being attacked by the enemy and the people he had recruited as his little helpers to assist him in his plot against me.  But also like Paul, amazingly, and unfortunately, I was not.   And how do I know that Paul was not exempt from the attacks of The Enemy?  Because he goes on to say in the next verse of Acts 20: 22, “And now I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem.  I don’t know what awaits me, except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lay ahead.  But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned to me by the Lord Jesus-the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.”

  Now that is truly amazing to me, talk about bravery and unwavering commitment.   Paul knew well what lie ahead for him, more of the same pain and torture he had already endured at the cost of his cause.  How many of us could say the same? That we would knowingly suffer the agonizing circumstances that awaited Paul, the gruesome circumstances that he knew he would soon be encountering and choose to move forward and do it anyway.  How many of us could say that they would knowingly suffer this type of life for the sake of our beliefs, our religion, our God or any other cause for that matter?  Heck, I don’t even go the dentist if I know in advance that it will be a painful procedure and that it might hurt too much.  But what is even more amazing to me is that not only did Paul know that he would be jailed and tortured, he also knew that some where in the near future  he might  also be asked to give his very life for his cause, because he told the Ephesians that this would be his last time seeing them.

I’m glad that I was lead to read this verse because I needed to be reminded that Paul, one of the greatest, most faithful disciples of Jesus, and for that matter, not even Jesus himself was exempt against the attacks of The Enemy”.  So why in the world would I think that I would be any different?  There is no one in history whose sacrifice was as great as Jesus’ sacrifice for us. 

I’ve always been told that when you’re on the right path, doing what God has called you to do, are when you are getting very close to a huge breakthrough in your assigned mission, is the time when the enemy attacks you the most.  Because after all if you are doing nothing and helping no one and just existing, you are not posing any threat to him at all, so why bother with you, he can just leave you alone to destroy yourself, because as it says in scripture, “Without out a vision the people perish.”  Just knowing that I am on the path to my purpose gives me solace, hope and strength to fight every day and to keep on fighting the fight ahead. I also know that it is a blessing to go through an affliction and come out victorious on the other side.  God allows us to go through certain experiences so that we can tell others about what we went through and which gives them hope that they too will get through what they are going through as well.   Our experiences make us valuable and usable for God in the real world.   Our experiences allow us to be able to relate to others in a very practical, empathetic way.  But one of the biggest advantages I get from going through hard times is that I grow to a stronger and higher level of faith, love and gratitude for God.  Because each time I go through difficult or painful circumstances and I get through it, I lam reassured that He will never leave me or forsake me.  I have total peace in knowing that MY GOD HAS GOT MY BACK!

  I also get comfort in knowing that I have weapons to fight Satan back with. Living a life of love and faith are tremendous weapons and Satan hates those.  But the one weapon I know that he always flees from and that he has no power against is The Word of God.  I am learning to use God’s word by saying it out loud when Satan attacks me to strengthen myself and send Satan on his way.  After all, Proverbs 18:21 says that “DEATH AND LIFE ARE IN THE POWER OF THE TONGUE.”  Even Satan knows the truth when he hears it and he also knows the remarkable power it holds.  When we learn to use our Weapons of Warfare in real life situations instead of just reading about what happened to the people in the bible and recite the scriptures, we are actually allowing ourselves to be used to effectuate change in the world around us?  We have to have gone through the experience and be able to relate it to others in order to help people.  No one wants a doctor whose has never done a surgery before to be the doctor performing their surgery.  And even though no one wants to experience trials and hardships, those are the times when we grow the most and become the people that we were meant to be.  These are also the times that we learn to trust and lean on God the most.  As long as we are alive and on this earth we will always have trouble.  But it’s what you choose to do in that time that determines who you are and your level of success or failure when you come through it. Now that you know that you actually have the power to inflict some damage on Satan, will you choose to use that power against him?  Or will you just stand still, do nothing and let him bully you, hurt and torture you, derail you from God’s plan for your life and rob you of your blessings and happiness?   I can’t answer for anyone but myself, and I know what has proven to work for me.  I open my mouth and use the words of scripture to defend myself and for me it has proven to have unbelievable power to miraculously turn things around in my life.

So for me, what I try to hold on to when Satan starts to pull out his heavy artillery against me is this; yes, occasionally he may knock me down, but with God’s help I will always get up.  The more I practice using my weapons of warfare the better I will become at using them.  And who knows maybe the next time “the enemy” is looking for someone to pick on, he will think twice before he chooses me.

TURNING SETBACKS INTO SEEDS

One of the most basic laws of the universe stems from a fundamental principal in which the entire Bible is based upon.  That is The Law of Reaping and Sowing.   Most of us are familiar with it in one way or another.  There are lots of different versions of this principal, you may have heard some of them, for instance; “What goes around comes around.”  “You will only get out of something as much as you put into in”, or even “Charmer is a _ fill in the blank)”.  But the easiest way to remember it is that “YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW.” Simple enough right?  All these familiar ancedotes that are rooted in the biblical principals of "Reaping and Sowing, which are based on the laws of planting seeds and reaping the harvest of whatever types of seeds you have planted. 

Seeds come in many forms.  There is of course is a Financial Seed, some of us may call it a tithe or an offering.  And for those of us that practice some type of religion on a regular basis know that generally, this seed is first be planted in the chruch, or given back to God, as it is stated in" The Word".  This is one of the most debated and controversial topics in the Bible, and no matter where you plant it or what you do with it, Money is still a Seed that is meant to be planted or invested someplace. More on this later.

Then next type of seed is the Seed of Words.  I believe that the seeds that we speak are extremely potent and powerful weapons.   It is also written in scripture many many times over how important and powerful the words of our tongues are.  (Proverbs 18:21) “The tongue has the power of life and death.”  (Proverbs 13:2)  “From the fruit of his lips a man enjoys good things.”  (Matthew 21:21) Jesus said if you say to this mountain move from here to there, it will move.”  Jesus didn’t say think it, He said say it for a reason. There is so much emphasis put on the words that we speak in scripture because of the power that they hold in our lives.  Anyone who knows me knows that one of the things that I always say is, “Don’t put it out there.”  What I’m really saying is, if you don’t want it to happen, then why dig the hole and plant the seed for it.  There is one thing that I know is that our life follows our thoughts, and our words are the products of our thoughts. 

Another type of seed is the Seed of our Work, Toil or even our Deeds.  This could be more easily translated by saying these are the seeds of what we do, how we live our lives.  This can apply to how well we do our job, the effort we put into it and the attitude we have when we are doing it. It can also apply to how we treat the people we come into contact with, that would include everyone from our coworkers, to the strangers that we meet in line at the bank, and even to how we treat our family members.  It also applies to our own lifestyle and personal habits. For instance do you eat right and go the gym at least a few times a week or do you eat fast food and sit watching TV several hours a day. In (Deuteronomy 16:15) it says that “God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands”.  But in order for God to bless the work of your hands, you have to do something for God to bless.  Another way to look at it is the efforts that we put into something, is planting a seed for God to bless and grow it for us. 

But the final seed that I want to speak of is the Seed of a Setback.  This is a seed that can be planted in a situation where you have experienced a disappointment, painful loss or are experiencing regrets.  Maybe you lost a job or even experienced the death of a loved one or went through a divorce.  Perhaps despite your best intentions you made a decision that didn’t have a positive outcome and you just can’t seem to shake the feelings of regret.  This is the best time to give these circumstances away as an offering to God.   Name  thec circumstance as a seed, tell God what your expectations are for the seed, and then  plant it by giving it away to Him.  Then let it go, trusting  Him to manifest your return on it.  Giving my disappointments and losses away to God and planting them as seeds are a relatively new concept for me.  But in the short time since I’ve learned it and implemented it, it has helped me to forgive others and myself and move through my disappointments, setbacks and  events that I don’t understand, so much faster than I ever could before in the past.  But there have also been other remarkable benefits that have occurred or me as well.

I had a situation occur on my job where I had worked really hard at getting this new customer and bringing their account to our company.  Do to some office politics I had to give it away to a coworker who had nothing to do with obtaining this account.  And to make matters worse, this is the same coworker who had started untrue rumors and spread gossip about me. If you follow my blog, you know that she had been trying to make my life hell since I started working there.  And now to make matters worse, she had nothing to do with this sale I made and now I had to give it away to her.  But there was a point where I had an opportunity to make a decision.  Sould I give the account to her or “fix it” so that no one ever knew that I had gotten the account at all. Therefore she would not get it, make commission on it or receive any credit for it?  I asked God what to do, and He was like, “ Come on you know what to do, you know right from wrong, it’s your decision to choose to do the right thing or not.”  So even though I literally had an adult temper tantrum, kicking, screaming, tears a streamin’ on my bedroom floor.  I swallowed my own will and did God’s will instead.  Although it still didn’t hurt any less just because I knew it was the right thing to do.  So I practiced this new type of seed that I had just learned about.  I named that seed, I told God that since I had just lost a 20 account deals, this account was worth about $30,000. I offered it as a seed to Him and expecting a 100 fold return on it.  I’m expecting to harvest a return of accounts before the end of the year that will total at least $20 million dollars.  I planted that seed on a Monday and by Friday I had acquired another account worth $330,000 towards my $20 million dollar goal.  But the most interesting part of this story is that the account that I received came to me from that same coworker that I had to give my $30,000 dollar account to.  She was forced by the owners of the company to give it to me. 

God said in (Acts 2:35) “He would make your enemies your footstool.  (Psalm 23:5) “He also said that he would prepare a table in the presence of our enemies.” 

  I have seen times of tremendous growth, favor and blessings since learning and applying these principals to my life.  That is certainly not to say that I’ve never had hard times or financial difficultly, but somehow God always showed up for me and made a way.  Sometimes He did things for me that were nothing short of a miracle.  There was one year when I was promoted three times, and my salary actually tripled as well.  Some may say its coincidence; well I don’t believe in coincidence, I do however believe in The Laws of Seedtime and Harvest.   But to the Naysayers I say try the Principal of Reaping and Sowing and see what happens for you.   After all God even says in (Malachi 3:10) “Test me in this.”  Also I do have the benefit of having experienced both sides of this coin, so I can also say that the opposite is true as well.  For the most part I’ve been a tither my entire adult life, but there was this one period in my life when I decided that I simply was not going to continue wasting my money tithing or giving offerings to church anymore. I was bitter and angry about many things in my life at the time, and I blamed God.  To this day, that was the worse year of my life, in terms of my finances. I had actually lost two jobs that year, had to move out of my house and went through all of my savings, down to my very last penny.  But in time I realized that where I was in my life at that point was a direct result of my own doing.   I repented, came to my senses and in the span of a single 24 hour period, God in His infinite mercy and love,  took me from poverty to prosperity.  I went from having nothing in my bank account to having a huge commission deposited into my account, and I was also offered a new job the following week. From that point on I promised God that I would never rob Him again by mistaking what was clearly His and comingling it with mine. 

What I have found is that God loves us so much that He has implemented a process where we can benefit and profit not just from our triumphs, but even the worse situations in our lives.  All He asks is that we first plant a seed,  then water it with prayers of faith, and give it the sunshine of joyful expectation, and last but not least, give it over to God to do the hard work of actually growing your crops. And one day if you are faithful, you will find that you can eat of the fruit of your long anticipated harvest.

PUT DOWN YOUR BUTTER KNIFE AND GET OUT OF MY WAY

It’s no secret that I have been facing some challenges with a co-worker, and from the very beginning, I knew that this was a situation that belonged to God.  I knew that this particular challenge was coming straight from the enemy.   I was constantly being attacked and slandered; my good name was being dragged through the mud for no apparent reason, at least no reason that was apparent to me. But there is always a reason is there, even if we don’t know what it is.  Although most times the reasons that people choose to target another person for acts like bullying, harmful rumors and lies or unsolicited schemes and attacks, usually goes back a lot further than before the targets of their attacks ever showed up on the scene.  But in this case let’s just say the perpetrator was angry with herself, but decided it would be much easier to take it out on me than to face up to her own demons.  And as a result she has been trying to do as much harm to me as possible,  as often as she possibly could in order to take her mind off of her disappointment in herself and to keep busy by creating an imaginary enemy, which in her mind, I guess would be me.

  But as I stated previously, from the beginning of the whole situation, I decided that I would have to let God handle it, because if I start to handle it my way, it would be an uglier situation than it already was and would not turn out well at all.  I also knew that although I had been experiencing some challenges where I was presently, that I was still in exactly the right place, the place where God wanted me to be.  I believe that God had put me here in order to help me to mature and develop some areas of weakness in my character.  I know for sure that I’ve got some issues with impatience, controlling my emotions and letting go of being reliant on only myself for solutions to my problems and not seeking God’s counsel.   But with each passing day God has proven to me over and over again, that He is in control.  Every step that I have taken since God placed me there has been covered with protection,  and unexplainable favor, including how I got there in there first place.   And with each victory I would praise God and become more and more assured with confidence in our relationship and my trust in Him.  I also grew stronger in my faith, love and more intimately connected to Him as well.

But one thing I’ve also begun to realize during this time is how angry and uncomfortable this made The Enemy.  I believe that he got a sense that he was losing this battle because he started to pull out his big guns against me.  I’ve heard it said that you should never let yourself get too hungry, tired, too lonely or stressed out because you are at most vulnerable to attacks by the enemy at these times.  And as for women, we might also want to add, watch out for those times when you are feeling hormonal.  Because I know for sure that there was one day last week, at exactly the right moment when I was suffering from all of those things. I believe what Peter says in scripture; (1 Peter 5:8) “Stay alert, watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He is like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”   I know this to be true first hand because I believe that at exactly the right time he employed my co-worker to send an email to me and my boss that hit exactly the right nerve, and I had an explosive knee jerk reaction.  I wish I could say that it was only that one slip of the tongue and pen (in email form to my boss and the owners of the company), but sadly, it was not. 

The incident that I speak of happened on a Thursday, but I went on and on, over and over it Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Not only did I snap at my family, but I incessantly yammered on about the event, and replayed the scenario over and over again for all of my friends, in blow by blow detail.  I was like one of those crazy women that you see on the subway talking to themselves.  I drove everyone I came into contact with totally crazy.  I talked about my situation over dinner with friends, I talked about it at the movies, I talked about it while watching TV, clearly I was a woman obsessed.   Thank goodness, it wasn’t long before I realized it and not a moment too soon, because by then I couldn’t stand to hear my own voice, I couldn’t even stand to be around myself anymore, I was even driving myself crazy.   I was also starting to feel this enormous sense of burden that weighed down my entire spirit, the more I thought about it the angrier I got,  and the angrier I got, the more I stressed and obsessed over it.  It was at this point that I knew that I needed to spend some serious alone time with God. 

So first thing Sunday morning that is exactly what I did.  The only problem was that I didn’t really get to have the quality time that I needed to hear from God and to get some sense of resolution about the situation.  And as a result I went to work the next day feeling that this dark, heavy cloud of negativity and pessimism was hanging over my head and following me around.   I’m sure that everyone I came into contact with must have felt it as well, because my productivity that day was the lowest it’s ever been, my whole day totally sucked.  I worked harder than I ever have on this job, with absolutely nothing to show for it. 

Again I was feeling angry, tired, stressed and disappointed, and as I said previously, you know who was watching and waiting for just the right moment to pounce.  And pounce he did, I was sucker punched by another incident initiated by my coworker’s little helper, and yet again, I had another knee jerk reaction.  You would think that I would have learned my lesson, but apparently I didn’t because I sent out  another bone headed angry, crazy lady email that sent my boss and the owners of the company into a frenzy.  It also made me look paranoid and totally incredible. 

It was at this moment, but only after my boss reamed me and sliced me apart that I realized that I had just been played by the enemy like a fiddle.  It was also at this moment that I had finally gotten tired of being played like “Boo-Boo La Foo” (A.K.A an idiot).  I was tired of being a victim of his schemes and reacting exactly the way he wanted me to, I was tired of feeling like a casualty of war, oh no it was on now.  Somehow it clicked; I finally realized that I was at war.  And I may have lost the last few battles, but now that I knew better, and with God on my side, I would not lose the war. Again, just like it says in scripture; “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil ... Because your fight has not been with flesh and blood, but with Principalities…” (Ephesians 6:12). So I also realized that I was going to have to fight fire with fire, I  knew that I was going to have to shut out the world and spend some serious one on one time with God, just He and I.

So I prayed about it, read the word, mediated on it, and asked for guidance to help me figure out how I got off on the wrong path.  And the more I searched scripture and the more I prayed and listened, I kept getting the same answer, basically to summarize it, it went something like this, “Well you started off on the right track, you said that no matter what you were going to trust me to fight your battles for you this time.  You said that since it was Me, God that put you here in this place, and you being an all knowing God, must have known that all these things would occur, and still you wanted me here in this place, that you obviously had a plan to get me through it.” But then you let your emotions control you and push you into doing things that I had nothing to do with. You picked up your own weapons and started fighting your own battle. But remember, the battle is not yours, it’s mine! The weapons that you are using are insufficient for this fight.  Compared to the weapons I will use, it’s like you have brought a butter knife to a gun fight.  SO PUT DOWN YOUR SCRAWNLY LITTLE BUTTER KNIFE AND GET OUT OF MY WAY.”  I heard the Holy Spirit say to me.

No matter how large my weapons may be, they are small and insignificant in comparison to any weapon that God might possess in His arsenal to fight my battles.  Now I knew that I needed to place my minuscule weapons on the ground and get behind God like a shield, and let Him pick up where He left off when I was letting Him fight my battle for me.  Basically, all I really needed to do was to just get out of His way so that He could do His thing, He never needed my help.

  I woke up the next morning with a sense of peace and surrender about this situation that I hadn’t felt previously.  And wouldn’t you know it, I went to work that day and ran across those same coworkers, and of course, they were up to their same old petty tricks.  But amazingly, I wasn’t angry or upset with them, I didn’t feel any anger or animosity towards them at all, it was weird, like I was just meeting them for the first time, like we had no past between us at all.  I was truly filled with a peace that passed all understanding.   They had not changed; they were still the same old characters that they were before.  But this time their plans didn’t work against me because I was different.  I had reconnected to my place of peace, and let me tell you that there is phenomenal power in peace.  But I was also cognizant of what I was dealing with, I recognized that my coworkers were not really my opponents, the Enemy was.   I also now knew what weapons I needed to fight this war I was in.   I finally understood that my strongest weapon would be to keep my eyes forward on my goals in front of me, to keep my peace, stay in control of my emotions and look upward to God, knowing that He is still in control and even though I may not be able to see it, I know that He is fighting my battles for me even as I write this.

GOD’S GOT A PLAN

Today I find myself in a very difficult circumstance.  I’m sitting between the proverbial “Rock and a hard place.  I am in a no win situation.  Everyplace I turn to search for an answer or a glimmer of hope, I constantly run into a brick wall.  Every corridor I look down I seem to find darkness, my situation is looking pretty bleak.   Daily I review my circumstances, struggling to develop strategies, deciphering formulas, hoping that today I will uncover some tangible evidence that will give me the sum of a different answer than the one that I got yesterday and the day before that.  But the only evidence I find is to the contrary, facts, like numbers are cold and hard, black and white, they don’t lie or take pity on anyone, not even a good hearted person in an unkind situation. 

So what should I do, do I quit? Do I run and hide? Do I give up and disappoint myself, as well as everyone who is counting on me? I rack my brain every day for an answer, for a way out of this, for a way to still win this fight and come out ahead, but still I have no solution.  And in my moment of weakness I find that I’m so desperate that I start to pity myself.  I even heard myself asking, out loud, “Why me Lord?”  “Why am I here in this place, and how am I going to get myself out of this, Lord?” 

And it’s at that time, at my moment of weakness that I became my strongest.  It’s at that time that I heard the answer, and I got the answer simply because I asked.   I felt the answer come up from way down deep in my spirit.  I could almost audibly hear God say, “Don’t worry, I’ve got this, I’VE GOT A PLAN.”  And then I felt a peaceful, serene sense of calm wash over me because I realized that I was here in this place because this is exactly where God wanted me to be.  He put me in a place where to the visible eye there would be no solution to my problem, because after all, faith is not a tangible substance.  God put me in a place where I would have to lean and depend on Him ever so closely; just to make it successfully through each day.  He wanted me and everyone around me to see that when I make it through this thing, and I don’t just mean make it through by the skin of my teeth, but thriving, victorious and prosperous, that He did it, because He was the only one that could.  He put me in a situation so impossible that only He could get me out of it. And when I do, people will look at me and the results, scratching their heads, squinting their eyes and scrunching their noses saying, “How the heck did she get through that, and now she’s actually better off than she was before?  HMMMM… go figure, they will say.”

But deep down in my heart I know that even though at times I may get weak, I still know that GOD’S GOT A PLAN!  I know that I am not here in this predicament by mistake.  I know that God has known even before I was born that I would someday be in this place, and He already had a solution to this and to all of my problems.  I know that He already has all of my blessings, opportunities, big breaks, resources, and the right people lined up waiting for me.  “For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans for hope and a future.”( Jeremiah 29:11)  God says that He knew us, while we were still in our mother’s womb, even before we were born.    This world is God’s and everything in it.  He’s got every of our lives worked out already, He is the only one that is in complete and total control.

For me when I find myself starting to freak out, in my times of weakness, when all I can seem to do is focus on the chaos spinning out of control around me,  these are the times when I should be focusing my eyes on how big my God is and not how big my problems are.  When times get rough I remind myself of all of God’s promises and of all of His characteristics”.   I also know that when I am weak, discouraged and running low on faith that is just the enemy, trying to plant seeds of fear inside of my subconscious, to distract me from something.  Maybe I’m getting to close to a certain blessing or a breakthrough in some area that I have been praying for? Maybe he’s trying to distract me from helping someone that I may soon encounter that I am supposed to help in some way?  Perhaps he wants to throw me off of the path I’m on because I’m finally fulfilling my purpose?  Who knows why, but one thing I am most certain of is that nothing is too big for God; He does His best work when He has to make a way out of no way.  I really believe God loves these types of situations because, we get the blessings and He gets the Glory.  That is just the way He likes it and that’s just the way it ought to be.  And if for some reason things don’t work out like I thought they should, I must put my trust in God and know that it worked out just as it should have.  “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22-42b).  Ultimately my solace comes from knowing that although His ways are not our ways, God’s will is always going to be better for me than any plan or solution I could ever come up with by myself. 

UPDATE:  Not 24 hours after I wrote this blog, even before I had a chance to publish it, God came through for me in an unbelievably awesome way.  He literally changed my circumstances and outlook overnight.  He came through for me so much bigger than I was praying for, faster than I could have ever imagined and better than I know I deserve.  All I can say is Thank You Lord, you are true to your promises, and if we give our will to you and put our trust in you, you will do for us whatever we can believe in you to do.  God’s blessings are only limited by our level of faith in Him.

Enemy or Footstool

In my last blog I wrote about how God can use our enemies to elevate us to another level of blessings.   God said in His word to “Sit until I make your enemies your footstool.”  This was a phrase that I heard before many times and I thought I understood what it meant. But I never really understood it until God allowed me to learn a whole new perspective on it through a real life experience.

 Recently, God blessed me with an awesome opportunity at a new company.  It was tailor made for my personality, my schedule my family and my lifestyle, not to mention it had some tremendous financial benefits attached to it.  There was only one problem, one of my coworkers turned out to be a serious “Hater”.  Even though I had a feeling that something was not quite right with her, I chose to ignore my instincts and tried to be friendly and cordial towards her.  I thought that I would make the best of the situation, because unfortunately not only was she my coworker, my boss thought that it would be a great idea to have her assist in training me as well.  I began to trust my instincts that something was wrong when she repeatedly asked me to accompany me on her daily errands and shopping trips instead of training me for the daily functions of my new job.  She would even tell me to knock off early and in some cases not to come in at all… hmmmm, I thought this is starting to get a little suspicious.  So finally I decided to listen to that small voice inside of me and request a meeting with my boss about the progression my training.  I didn’t want to be unprepared for my job when the time came for me to fly solo.  I was glad that I did so, because it was at that time that I found out that she had been giving my boss false reports about everything from my attendance to my performance and attitude.  I also found out that not only was she lying on me and trying to make me look bad and refusing to train me, she had also fabricated an elaborate vicious lie about me, went in to see the owners of the company, told it to them  and every person that she came in contact with in our small company.  But she wasn’t done yet; she also went to the owners of the company and requested to take away every single account that I had that could possibly help me to generate any decent revenue in my territory.   And to complete her diabolical scheme, she also enlisted a friend of hers to help her. This friend of hers happened to work in the department that controlled our sales leads, and she told her to make sure that I didn’t receive any leads and that they would all go directly to her.  It all made sense to me now, why everyone including the owners was now treating me so differently.  Everyone was extremely cold and stand offish with me.  I was totally oblivious; I thought it was just because I was the new girl.  Now I know why my team had been excluding me from social functions and leaving me out of the friendly huddles and brain storming sessions.

I felt a surge of fury and devastation rush over me all at once.   Why was she doing this to me, what possible reason could she have for treating me this way?  Why would someone I barely know try to sabotage my career, ruin my reputation and try to take away my livelihood, the way that I provide for my family?   For one fleeting moment I even went so far as to ask God why He would put me in a situation like this.  But at least I did have enough spiritual maturity to answer that question for myself and not insult God with it.  Just because God gives you a blessing it doesn’t mean that there will not be challenges or obstacles that will accompany it.  The Israelites had to go through the desert and were expected to fight their enemies to siege and occupy their promised land.  So I wasn’t about to let myself start to go down that road of feeling sorry for myself, who was I to think that I was to be excluded from problems, or painful challenges?

 My first thought after shaking off my painful, confused emotions, was that of retaliation, my feisty nature immediately took over, I wanted to meet her in the parking lot and just beat her butt.  Not literally of course, but emotionally and professionally definitely.   I wanted revenge; I wanted her to feel the same pain that I was feeling.  After all I told myself that anything that I did to her right now would be totally justified.   I could very easily plot and scheme against her and her little minion until their lives were just as miserable as mine was.  But my soap opera revenge fantasy lasted only for a brief second before I let the whole mellow dramatic plan go.  I knew in my heart that it would be the wrong thing to do, maybe in a past life I might have gone there, but it just wasn’t who I was anymore.  And it was also at that very moment that I heard the Holy Spirit say to me, “Sit still and let God handle this.”  This seemed to be a very simple request, but it was not an easy one.  In fact it was and to this day one of the hardest things I have ever had to do.  And because she and I still work together and she and her little sidekick are still up to their same old tricks, it is still one of hardest things that I pray for the strength to continue to do every single day.  As a matter of fact today was one of those days, I saw her in the parking lot and the urge to run her down still came over me.  I just prayed it away and drove out as quickly as I could before my car “ACCIDENTALLY” lost control and hit her…oopsy! J

But anyway, as I was saying, when I read the verse, “Sit until I make your enemies your footstool”,  I was kind of hoping that in this case God meant it for me in its most literal sense.   I wouldn’t mind putting my feet up on top of my coworker, heck I probably would even be okay with jumping up and down on her at this point.  LOL, just kidding J  But what I know today is that God was saying this to me.  One day, not only would He allow our enemies to serve us by acting on our behalf in a role of support or subordination to us somehow, but now I understand it in a deeper sense to mean something much more profound.  This verse was mentioned at least three times in the bible, Luke 20:43, Acts 2:35 and Psalm 110:1.  There may actually be more occurrences, but those were the only ones that I counted.  So what that tells me was that there was something rather significant in its meaning for us, that God felt the need to repeat it so often.  And although it appears to be very short and simple, for me, its meaning was very deep.

Think about it, what the heck is a footstool?  Immediately when I ask myself that question I pictured myself, kicking back with my feet resting on a plush ottoman. But footstools can also serve us in more than one way.  A footstool can also be used as a prop to boost us up to a higher level in order to reach something we could not ordinarily reach without assistance.  Now what I also found interesting about this verse was that God also gave us one very important and explicit instruction to accompany this promise.  And instruction He gave was to “SIT”.  Yes that’s right He said sit, just sit, be still, do nothing, don’t fret, don’t worry, don’t scheme, don’t plan, don’t plot, just give it over to me, He said, and let me handle it my way.

 I believe that God wants us to know that when situations arise where people hurt us or betray us without cause or provocation that He wants us to give the matter over to Him, trust Him to handle it, and then just sit and wait on Him to do his thing. For most of us, this may be the hardest part of the entire process. But if we can trust Him to handle our battles, He will take care of our enemies and the circumstances that are associated with the issues they have caused for us. “We know that all things work together for good for those that love God.” (Romans 8:28). God wants us to know that if we suppress our natural tendencies to seek revenge, lash out or retaliate against our enemies, and go through the situation prayerfully, giving it to Him, we will grow stronger, more mature, and therefore move up to a new level of faith and trust in our relationship with Him.  But not only that, God has a way of avenging us and disciplining our enemies in a way that will have long lasting effects on their lives. 

God’s revenge is always sweeter than any plan or scheme we could ever come up with, because God has created us all, and He knows what make us tick, He knows how to push our most sensitive buttons.  I believe that God will discipline our enemies on our behalf and cause them to be a witness to the blessings that the He is giving us, in spite of all they may have tried to do to prevent it, and it will hurt. Because truly the best revenge is living well, being prosperous, successful  and happy, in spite of our enemies or the circumstances going on around us. Nothing hurts your Haters more than watching you get better, happier, more prosperous and more blessed.

I know that if we let Him, God will use your enemy and the whole situation to make you into a stronger better wiser person, and just like a footstool, your enemy will serve you, and they will have made you stronger, because you had to persevere through the struggle that they took you through.  And you would have defeated them and therefore used them as a stepping stone to rise to new, greater and higher levels in your life, including your faith and trust in God. And for this He will reward you handsomely.  If you are innocent of and remain righteous, you will always wind up standing on top of your enemies.  For “If God is for you, who can be against you?” (Romans 8:3) And let’s not forget,  “No weapon formed against you shall prosper.” Isaiah 54:17. We will indeed come out on top of our enemies, if we do what God is telling us to.

And I know this from personal experience.   God has already blessed me tremendously in my new position already,  He has opened doors for me that have never been opened previously and allowed me to plant seeds of opportunity that I know will grow into amazing revenue streams for both me and my company, and I know that this is just the beginning.  I’m not quite sure how all of my blessings will manifest themselves, but I am anxiously waiting to see what miraculous things God will do on my behalf now and in the future.  I know that with God it’s always a surprise, you just never know, but I will definitely be keeping you posted.

A SPECIAL DEDICATION TO ALL OF THE HATERS OF 2011

Was 2011 your year for all of your enemies to attack you.  Did it seem that no matter where you turned, there were enemies all around you?  Were you the innocent victim of betrayal, gossip, lies, slander, infidelity or broken trust?  Did someone leave you heartbroken, or  did they steal something even more valuable from you like your trust? Has someone stolen something near and dear to your heart like a lover or a promotion, maybe you were even conned out of your life savings?  Did someone falsely befriend you, only to use you to get close to another person in your life?   Or perhaps the person that hurt you was not an obvious adversary, maybe there is someone in your circle whom in the nice-nastiest way, is constantly trying to belittle, degrade or take potshots at you at every available opportunity.   Pretending to be your friend, knowing that all the while they are filled with jealousy and contempt for you.  These types of people pretend to be your best friends in order to stay close to you.  Because it’s easier to do the most damage at a closer range as a friend than it would be farther away as an enemy.  So they stay in your life, continuing to be the only thing that they truly ever could be to you, and that is a” Frienemy”.  Or to put it even more plainly, an undercover Hater disguised as a friend=Frienemy.   

The type of hurt inflicted by a friend can be the most painful of all.  But the solace to that bitter pill is that at least in some twisted way, it does make more sense for someone who is closer to you to hurt you than it would be for a complete and total strange to hurt you.  At least they know you, and no matter how twisted the reasons are that they have fabricated in their mind, they know what your life is like, and maybe watched your happiness, gifts, talents and blessings from afar and grown envious overtime. Like I said, it is twisted, but in some way it does make sense. In my mind it makes a lot more sense than when a stranger who knows nothing about me, targets me, to hurt me for absolutely no reason.  I know that for me, when I have been attacked and purposely hurt by someone who doesn’t even know me, it baffles me.  The pain that I feel is compounded by the confusion that comes along with a situation like that.   In the past, I’ve spent many long hours trying to figure it all out.   I keep asking myself what I did or said wrong to make them treat me this way, to make someone seek me out to attack me maliciously without cause or provocation.  And the answer I got was this:  “People always throw rocks at things that shine.”

 I heard that line in the lyrics of a Taylor Swift song.  I’ve got to give it to her, for such a young girl, she has either dealt with a lot of “Haters” or been blessed with wisdom beyond her years. Because not only did she sing those words, she also wrote them.    And when I heard them, they so perfectly expressed exactly what I was feeling.  Because it seems to me that the more joy, talent, beauty, prosperity, blessings, love, happiness or wealth you have, the more some people want to hurt you.   My mom used to tell me when I was growing up that no matter how much you do to please people, there will always be someone that doesn’t like you, for whatever reason.  There will never be a way to make everyone like you. You will never be able to please everyone. So don’t ever try, just be you, “Do You.”  Don’t  ever try and “Shrink to Fit”,  in order to make someone else feel more comfortable about themselves.   Don’t ever put a dimmer on the brightness of your shine; just learn how to dodge the rocks.

We may never know why there seems to be this natural inclination for some people to hate those who are happier or that seem to be more successful than they are.  Maybe seeing the happiness of others reminds them of how unhappy and disappointed they are with the way their lives have turned out.  Seeing our happiness reminds them of the misery. And instinctively we become the enemy, the obvious target of their pain. That is just one theory of mine, but really we may never know why The Haters that we encounter, do what they do. Maybe Satan just needs to use someone to assist him in doing his dirty work.  And even though it may not look that way right now,  if any of these things have happened to you, like myself, if you have experienced  unwarranted pain or hurt this past year as the result of any of these events, do you know what I have to say to that?  GOOD, NO GREAT! THANKS HATERS!”  Because believe it or not they have actually did us an enormous favor.  So to all of the “Haters” out there, I say THANKS, because you’ve  made me stronger, tougher, smarter, wiser, helped me to sharpen my instincts, you have also made me more determined to be better, no, to be the best that I can be in spite of all that you have done to sabotage me.  And by living my life this way, being the best me that I can be, happy, healthy and free, I am insured to have the best and sweetest revenge possible.  Although I must point out, that this is not my goal.  It is simply the result of living well.  The best revenge you can ever have in life, is to live well and be happy.  And the benefits do not end there; the best news is still yet to come.

Because what I’ve learned is that whenever we are the target of unprovoked attacks, it means that God has a plan for you.  It means that like Job, He thinks very highly of you, and after you have passed this test, and gotten through this, He will elevate you to a higher place in your life.  And the cool thing about God is that whenever you pass a test and move on to the next level, he always rewards us with blessings and a higher level of favor and He will use your enemies to assist Him in doing so.   Just as He has said in His Word, “If God is for you, who can be against you?”  He has also said many times in His Word, “He will use your enemies as your footstool.”(Luke 20:43).   But in order for this to happen for us, there are certain requirements and behaviors that God expects from us during this challenging time.   As I stated earlier, I know this from personal experience, and in my next blog I will share exactly how God did that for me and I received blessings and incredible favor from God as a result.