Tuesday, July 17, 2012

It's Been Here All Along!

Hello friends, I hope that everyone is enjoying their day. Remember that God gave it to you...so it is up to you to decide what kind of day that you will have.

Well, I wanted to share something that happened to me on yesterday. Ever had one of those "aha" moments? That moment when it seems like all that you can say is, "WOW! ... WOW... WOW! It isn't always earth shaking, not necessarily bad, nothing major, just one of those moments when it just seems like the light just came on! I had one of those moments on yesterday. I must admit that all I could do was smile, Praise God, and just shake my head.

Last year, I was blessed to be the receipent of a brand new HP Touchsmart computer. This was totally a gift that caught me by surprise! I had begun playing around with Graphics, some videoing and editing, now some photography and believe me, this computer is really great in all of these areas. I like pretty things, exciting things, and I like even more, being able to design things myself. I especially like playing around with the video stuff. I haven't quite gotten video editing perfect yet, but I like a challenge, and I have decided to keep working at it. I often observe the various television commercials, business advertisements, other graphics that I see in various places. I currently use a particular movie maker, which I love...but I have often thought to myself, how much that I would love a video editing program that could really add the fast movements, the special effects, and the real actions to my editing capabilities. Never have I ever mentioned this desire to one single person, not even God! I am big on asking God for a particular desire, but not this time. I am a strange person...if I have a particular thing, like the current movie maker program, or my current point and shoot camera, I don't want a bigger, more expensive camera, a bigger, more expensive program, until I can somewhat master the one that I already have. (I said that this is the way I am. I am sure that you are not like me, and you would want the bigger, newer, more expensive thing. That's good too...that's the way you do what you do...LOL!) So I was content to learn how to really get good at using what I already had. I just sometimes imagined using the newer programs for some of my videos.

Anyway, yesterday I was making DVDs, full of photos from an event that took place this past weekend. I was so proud of the DVD, sat down and watched it on my computer, played it on my son's laptop, to be sure that it was compatible with other devices. I would not want to send out DVDs that wouldn't work on other people's TVs, laptops or computers. Well, I decided to try it out on my big screen television, and to my surprise...it would not show...couldn't read image or audio data! Ugh! I had already made numerous copies of it. It would not play on any of my televisions in the house! Oh well...what now? I knew that I had a DVD program on my computer, maybe a I did something wrong? So, I then began searching the DVD Suite that was on the computer...as my grandmother would say, "with a fine tooth comb". To my huge surprise, I discovered a video editing program within the DVD Suite. I had looked at the Suite before, made DVDs before, but I had never seen this editing program. Oh my goodness...it is exactly the kind of editing program that I had been imagining! Remember, I never told anyone about my desire, and I never even discussed it with God, or asked God to give it to me. Not one time!

I was so excited, and immediately started to play around with it, to see what I could do with it. Suddenly God spoke to me and said, "It has been there, all along!" I have had this computer for a year now, and I never did see that program on it. God went further and said, "there are blessings all around you, that you have not seen in manifestations, that are not visible to you, can't see with your natural eyes, that are right there. You have asked for things that are not manifest to you, that you already have!
He said that others have asked Me for things, and those things are right there in their midst, even though they can't see them visibly"! They have been there all along!


This is what He said, and I am not going to add to it by trying to explain it! If you are reading this, and if it applies to you, I know that The Holy Spirit will show you.

That's all!



Friday, July 6, 2012

Life- More Abundantly!

I am going to warn you at the start of this post...it is lengthy, you may have to stop reading...make a sandwich, grab a coke, and come back to it. I just had some things on my heart...things that I have been talking to God about, things that have troubled me, things that I just wanted to share. I am not mad at anyone, but the devil!

First of all, I love people. All people. People that I know, people that I don't know. People who have not even been born yet. People who I have not even seen before, who I have never met. Those who have been shunned by society, those who are lovable and those who are unlovable too. Those who may think differently from me, those who may not like me. Those who may disagree with me, those who may do things different than I do...I love people! You may be saying, "how can she say that, how can this be true?" I love everyone because God loves everyone, and He has given me the ability to do so too! I have come in contact during my life, with some people who are quite nasty, unkind, mean, prejudiced, who frankly, just weren't pleasant to be around, who treated me ugly for no apparent reason...strangers, family members, folks in the grocery stores, in the malls, just people. But, I still love them, because God loves them, and I know that He loves me, even if no one else likes me, cares for me, if others treat me crazy, I rest in the truth that I am so loved by God. I can smile every day, knowing that I am loved, forgiven, approved, blessed by His grace, and favored. I want everyone to know that He loves you too, and He wants the best for everyone, that means YOU!

Yes, I know that it is hard to believe that God could love a Hitler, a drug dealer, a prostitute, a person who could rob people of millions of dollars...an entire life savings, a person who could abuse a child, a spouse, a rapist...a racist, a terrorist. But God loves so differently from us! Our finite minds cannot grasp the love that God has for everyone...yes, everyone! Sadly, people relate to God and His love, like they relate to everyday love...the kind that may be here today and gone tomorrow...the kind that brings two people together, one gets sick with a lengthy illness and sudden the other leaves, or the girlish figure leaves and strands of grey appear, and suddenly she is not so attractive as at first, or someone else looks a little finer...prettier...or the kind of love that suddenly causes one to fall out of love, you know..when you love them, but you are no longer "in love" anymore, or the kind where you will love, as long as everything is going your way, and all of your conditions are met!

Thankfully, God does not love like that! His love is unconditional...not based upon someone loving Him back...not making us earn it, not making us do all of the right things...we don't have to look a certain way, we don't have to "work" for it. We don't have to jump through hoops, take all kinds of abuse. God has no conditions. He just loves us, because He wants to. He loved us before we knew that we needed Him to. He loved us before we touched planet Earth, He loves those who have not been conceived yet! I am not saying that He loves the unkind, unloving, abusive, destructive things that people do, but the people...Yes! When Jesus gave His Son, He did it for every one. He soooo loved the world...He didn't just love the world, He soooooo loved! He didn't pick and choose. His love is for every one...but sadly every one won't choose His love.

I said all of this because I am so saddened by all of the times that I read of suffering and hear of suffering, and oftentimes, I hear people credit God for causing it, or "allowing it". This is so NOT true. More and more, God is being accused of awful things...sickness and disease, foreclosures, poverty, natural disasters, children dying, killings and murders, etc...supposedly because God is trying to teach us something, or He is causing these things to happen, so that He can get the glory when he brings you out of it. Why can't He just get the glory for protecting us from all of these things in the first place! God gets no glory for killing a baby, for putting cancer in someone's body, or wiping out thousands of people with a hurricane, flood, tornado or sunami. No, God is not talking to us through these things. He talks through His Word, through His Spirit, to our spirit. Would real love do this? I love my sons, and I only want the very best for them. I would not dream of doing a deadly thing to them to punish them, or to try to teach them something. I would be in a prison today, if I did to my children...what God has been accused of doing! God delights in giving life, not taking it...in healing, not making sick...in supplying Wants and needs, not causing one to be in want, in poverty! God hates death, death is an enemy of God (Ezekiel is just one of the many Scriptures that God talks about death...He hates the death of him who dies...He has no pleasure in death..Eze. 18:32) God is not causing folks to lose their homes...God promised and is giving us good homes (more than one) and even filling them with good things, even with swimming pools if you want one-Deut. 6:10-11...He is not making people lose their home. Suffering for Christ is not suffering with sickness, with poverty, children lost to the world, a bad marriage. Suffering for Christ is suffering by being ridiculed, persecuted, rejected because you want to live holy, because you want to not engage in activities that you once did, that you now know is contrary to God's way, because you want to glorify Christ. Suffering is when you speak up for Christ and no one wants to include you in their gatherings anymore...it is doing things for the sake of the Kingdom...not lying on a bed with your body filled with disease for Jesus! All through the Gospels, we see Jesus healing...healing folks with sickness in their body, healing people who were possessed with demons, He stopped funerals, woke the dead folks up. If Jesus only said and did what He saw His Father do, then God must be healing too! Jesus got rid of sickness, except where people did not believe. Jesus has not changed...He is the same, still healing, still hate sickness and disease. He is the same yesterday, today and forever! I didn't say yesterday, today and tomorrow...not tomorrow. He wants you well TODAY!

I just hate to see all of the sickness, especially among professing Christians. A part of Redemption included divine health. God wants His people well, not suffering with one disease after another. It is almost impossible to sit and watch 30 minutes of television, without hearing about 10 new medications or diseases! Now, they are even telling a mother that it can be harmful to hold her baby! How crazy is that! God has said that He has already GIVEN us everything that pertains to life and godliness...good health pertains to life, would you agree? Having a roof over your head, a dependable vehicle, a safe neighborhood, money in the bank...these things pertains to life, and they give you a sense of peace when you are well, with money in the bank, a nice home to live in, and your children all well. (2 Peter 1:2-4). We have an awesome Inheritance, and it is for right NOW! Not for heaven, although we will enjoy good things there too, BUT WE CAN HAVE THESE BLESSINGS NOW, TODAY! We are included in an awesome will! Jesus has already dies so that it would go into effect, and He even came back from the dead to carry it out!

If you are a child of God and you are reading this, (if you have never asked Jesus into your heart, if you have never confessed that Jesus died for your sins, and was raised for your salvation, you can right now) you DO NOT have to put up sickness and disease, with spending all of your money going from one doctor to another, tests after tests, pills after pills and not getting better. Just believe God. The woman with the issue of blood, she kept spending money until she had spent everything that she had. Instead of getting better, she was getting worse. She heard about Jesus and she believed that He would heal her. He did! He wants to do the same for you.(Mark 5:25-34) I know that so many things just don't make sense, but God didn't say that it had to make sense, He simply asked you to believe!

He is still healing. He is still raising the dead. He s still providing. He still wants us to live a good life, an abundant life, a life overflowing with blessings, a life just like His! He has an awesome plan for you, yes, YOU! He said that He wants to give you a future...well guess what, we are living the future right now! Reach out and receive what is yours...receive the good plan that God has for you. Trust God. Trust His promises to manifest in your life! God LOVES His people!!!

I just want to see everyone live a good life. No more defeats in life, just barely getting along, scraping, struggling, hanging on by your nails, stressed, depressed, just surviving. We are not supposed to be just surviving...we are supposed to be living, flourishing, thriving! We have eternal life in us. Eternal life doesn't just have to do with quantity of life, BUT QUALITY of life also. Jesus said, "I come that you might have life (zoe-the God kind of life, the very nature of God, His essence, everything that God is...), and have it MORE abundantly! (John 10:10). Can you imagine that! God has made it such that we can have in us, everything that makes God, God. We have His very nature, His ability to love people, His ability to forgive people who have wronged us, His desire to see the best in others...and desire that good things happen for others, that we genuinely care and are concerned for others, not just always concerned about ourselves...wow! That's our Father!

Whatever you need...God has it for YOU!

I love you! Walk in your victory, abundance, peace!

~Gayle