The Victory over Sin

    My trial has been delirious, I have failed and resented my flesh and my insufficiency. I have blamed others for my shortcomings, I have looked for an escape, a rabbit hole to flee the burden of responsibility that is the demand of finances and fiscal responsibility, to be content in a time of trouble and lack. 

    For a time, there was a relief, things were passable. I had enough to afford certain luxuries, my bills were paid, yet there was little excess. Of the remaining excess I struggled to find acceptable outlets, giving to others was always foremost in my directives. I never withheld a benefit to someone who asked or had offered me their friendship. Psalm 23:1 A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

    Now I have entered a new season, this season has been challenges. I have seen the people whom I gave everything turn on me and resent me. The people whom I presented myself to and served have despised me and hated me. I am trusting in King Jesus for deliverance from this new season of trial. 

    No doubt, the era of covid has been a curse and scourge on humanity. Judgment from the enemy, a people rife with pleasure thrown into chaos. Only the wealthy and the dishonest being given superiority and an excuse from the misery, righteous judgment from God wouldn't have been so cruel to the lowly and poor.

    I love the generosity of the few who have stuck by me in my time of trouble, I resist the temptation to be harsh towards those who have pulled back. I want to be a knight in shining armor for my wife and deliver her from the wiles of the enemy, but alas it is not I who has the hero's sword, I am but a servant of the mighty deliverer. Of his name will I forever be humbled and subservient. I hope to never again liken myself to a man of means or ability. It is not of my might or intellect that my deliverance will come.

Romans 8:3-4 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Back in the mixture

     The time has come, for far too long I have hesitated to return to this Journal or Journeys. In 2017 my life took a turn for what looked like what would be a financially fortunate side street. Ultimately I had to return from the accidental brokenness (we all know so well) to my only trust worthy friend, confidant and mentor Jesus Christ. 

    For most of my life I have been trying, ever so diligently, to prosper both spiritually and corporeally, using the Word of God to speak blessings over my life and at the same time pursuing opportunities in the industries I have found myself involved or at least captured by their intrigue. It's a delicate balance something I now know, I alone am incapable of successfully managing.

    I use the word *capture because when we devote ourselves to a discipline it involves selling ourselves over to a great degree. We must, if we are to be successful in our fields, give ourselves over to an attitude of "Do whatever it takes." God loves this about us, in fact I could argue that the never give up mentality is directly proportional to the gift that God bestowes upon his children. Phillipians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

    Never give up mentality has some very disastrous consequences in the physical world, especially without Christ Jesus as your navigator or trying to part-time Christian your way through the peaks and valleys. For example; A person who never gives up and is clearly out of their league is also ignorant and incapable in some competitions. Don't be fooled, life is a competition, Apostle Paul calls it "The Race"; Hebrews 12:1 "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."

    Confidently calling my last race a major loss is me just being honest with myself, I was outplayed and out maneuvered by an enemy, I underestimated. Ultimately I lost my business, my ego and lots of time and effort that was devoted to helping people and doing things in a way I considered to be hospitable. I sulked and found myself being tossed to and fro from emotions of deep depression and anger to hopes of a successful lawsuit that ultimately was at best another waste of time and resources and at worst a legal trap set by the enemy.

     Hospitality is a major cornerstone of what I base my values, Jesus was a promoter of hospitality and I have a background in 5 star hotels. 1 Peter 4:9 "Be hospitable to one another without complaint." I take hospitality very seriously, I consider it my greatest skill. Many people mistake kindness for weakness and prey on faithful Christians who they think they can get one over on us and not face a violent physical reaction and in most cases they are right. But my God is a God who loves to avenge his faithful! My enemies will either be converted or deserted. Psalm 58:10 "The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked."

    It's important to note that throughout this entire debacle I was preaching the gospel to the lost faithfully, enduring persecution and resisting temptations. I had a few failures of newness, some artifacts of the old me would surface occasionally but if I were my judge, I'd have granted myself clemency. Thank God, Y'shua has granted me a full pardon for my failures no matter how great or small. Isaiah 43:25 "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins."

Despite the enemy and his attacks on our freedom and liberty, we are entering a new season of excess and blessing in the Kingdom. I will once again attempt to foray into the world to work as if unto the LORD and claim my inheritance on earth as in heaven. Isaiah 54:17 "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD."

Newness and Prosperity

God renews us with his supernatural forgiveness and grace. Too often we become overburdened by the responsibilities and fascinations of modern life. When we are renewed the world is not given over to rejoice our blessings with us. The enemy is at work to destroy the good works in us of the Lord, but Christ has given us the victory.

Getting the kinks out

Good afternoon friends


Today I sit and ponder the meaning of life and I sense anxiety within. Usually, we have something in our lives that causes anxiety; whether its finances, our health, our careers or even our children and pets. This cause of anxiety should not be how we define ourselves but often the unfortunate truth is we have become slaves to our anxiety. We must look to Y'shua to solve our challenges rather than crediting organization and scheduling as the only solution.
I wake up and immediately look to my emails, messages and calendars. I chronologically plan my day with the tasks deemed most important at the front of the list. While these challenges are never going away, a trusting relationship with Jesus will help us to overcome anxiety and not suffer enslavement to our challenges and anxiety.

Even the secular experts are forced to admit that no matter how great at time management, just do a quick topic search on time management (they all suggest getting involved in yoga and or transcendental meditation) we are all doomed to negative health consequences of stress. In Christianity - there is no existential solution to limiting stress and anxiety besides an improved God centered spirituality.  Eventually we all just need to relax and let the stress and anxiety go, but how do we achieve what has been historically so difficult for many to grasp? So many of us are approaching the problem of anxiety and stress related to time management from a materialist perspective and not a spiritual perspective, how can we truly ever find a true solution?

Anxiety is a personal/internal struggle very much related to and concerned with the spirit of the individual, it only becomes physical when its symptoms are acknowledged and acted on by the persons external body. 1st Corinthians 13: 4-5 explains "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs." Therein lies the answer to our quandary with stress and anxiety; Love.

Love is the answer to anxiety, forgiveness eases our stress. Unselfishness ends our frustrations, helping others and bringing the gospel of the Kingdom to others is what provides relief. There is some very fundamental truth to this subject matter and I hope you can find solace and peace in a relationship with Jesus as I have been so blessed to learn and find hope for my future despite our many experiences with unsavory circumstances.

Salvation

The Father has been so good to me, I am so blessed. Over the past few months I have been enriched spiritually and physically. There is a strong groaning in my spirit for revival, the whole earth is crying out for Jesus' return. The blessing all stems from our salvation from sin, which required his holy blood sacrifice and erases sin.

My wife and I recently celebrated our 10th anniversary, it's been wonderful all things considered, she has exceeded my earthly expectations of a wife.

I enjoy a week away from home in paradise as much as the next guy however the stench of overt materialism continues to alert my spiritual senses. As easy as it is to dismiss it as something women do naturally, I am forced to deal with the fact it is not an activity exactly championed by Christ in the gospel, in fact it's quite opposite. In absolute honesty I enjoy finding a good deal too, just don't think "good" deals come along every day.

Rather than spending money on personal fashion and vain pursuits, my spirit much prefers to bless others with finances. I fulfill my Christian walk by giving joyfully to almost every person I come into contact with, especially if they are explicitly begging or asking for money. I pay no mind to the possibility the person may be misrepresenting thier poverty, rather I consider the possibility anyone of them could be Jesus or one of his angels.

He is Healer

Isaiah 53:4-5

⁴ Surely he hath borne our griefs,
and carried our sorrows:
yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities:
the chastisement of our peace was upon him;
and with his stripes we are healed.

 I started this blog to document the movements of the Holy Ghost (miracles) in my life and those whom I have been blessed to come into contact. There is probably nothing more satisfying than seeing the fruits of spirit come to reality and witnessing a divine blessing. When we witness miracles, in my experiences, it's difficult to admit and attribute it to God, it's in our nature to look for a logical conclusion. We shouldn't be that way, secular thought and science attempts to disprove the supernatural at every opportunity and we should be using faith to prove the supernatural at every opportunity.

An acquaintance of mine, nicknamed Coach, was suffering, I have known him for a few years, Coach was stricken with an infection in his right elbow after a botched surgery to repair ligament and tendon damage. He explained his injury; he had been suffering pain in his elbow for years before finally being able to afford surgery that could possibly alleviate his elbow pain. Unfortunately, his elbow became infected after the surgery, although he was on strong antibiotics, his dream of getting his elbow fixed was quickly turning into a nightmare of bad medicine. The doctors had already prepared him for the possibility that he could lose his arm if the infection didn't start to reduce. They had already modified his medication to a stronger form of antibiotic. Coach was concerned that he was going to lose his arm.

I asked Coach if he would allow me to pray over his elbow, he agreed and I did my best to be as sincere and faithful as possible in my prayer. Afterwards I gave him some advice along the lines of, "don't believe what the doctors tell you, just have faith in your healing through Jesus." Weeks passed and I hadn't heard from him, but I kept diligent to mention him in prayers. The next time I visited, the outlook from the doctors had improved, they claimed he wasn't completely out of danger but there was significant improvement. I reiterated to him to just believe in his healing and thank Jesus. Finally, last week, my most recent visit, approximately 2 months from him notifying me of his complication and he has fully recovered. 

Thank Jesus for this man's healing, of course disbelief suggests we could attribute his recovery to the antibiotics that the doctors gave him who messed up his elbow in the first place or you can believe in my miracle working God, YHWY, Jesus Christ, Ruach Hakodesh, King of Kings, He is Healer.

Good day

The Orphanage

Good day

I was recently caught unaware of the relevance of orphans, orphanages and their impact on the world both spiritually and physically. I decided I would expand on the subject of what orphans really mean, how God is fiercely aware of an orphan child's plight and how we as believers have an intrinsic responsibility to care for, clothe, feed and nurture, physically and spiritually, human orphans.o

The 2007 gothic horror film of the same name, uses our fears of ghosts and the responsibilities we have to our children against us. Though its been several years since I have watched the movie, reading a plot summary brought up feeling of fear and helplessness for the difficulties orphans face and the irresponsible, sometimes accidental occurrences that cause/lead to children being victims of orphanry.

Apostle Paul calls us the adopted sons of God; Ephesians 1:5 "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,". I remember being intensely frightened by the concept of an orphanage as a child. Disney movies used orphans as central character plot in several of their productions, many I watched as a child. Here's an article by Cosmo effectively calling the frequent occurrence merely an attempt to build a central character story line.

It is the fear of the improbable death of our parents that grips us, the security blanket they provide being suddenly torn form our grasps, just like the plot of Batman, Superman and countless other Hollywood productions. In my opinion the real reason for this focus on orphanry is the spiritual, eternal laws of God being manifest. God refers to himself as the Father, Jesus is the Son and of course the comforter is the Holy Ghost. I sense the enemy is attempting to circumvent the truth of Father, Son relationship and instead attempting to replace it with a lonely orphan counterfeit savior. A fatherless son, an orphan outside of the eternal God head. Yes I know that's quite a bit to digest, since this is a new revelation it will take time for me to flesh out all of the related implications. I am merely wetting the spiritual appetite, if you will.

It then follows: we can accept the adoption of our Father God through the salvation of his Son Jesus Christ or we can look to an orphan god, who resents the Father who he abandoned in favor of himself.

There are thousands of charitable organizations dedicated to helping and housing the orphans of the world, all of which is admirable until we find out the demonic influences these organizations can unwittingly or purposely serve. The Christian church has not altogether abandoned its responsibility to orphan children but is quickly falling behind gov't and secular institutions in its ability to navigate the arena as the State and Child Protective Services are given more and more judicial power to decide the fate of young orphans.

In a sinful state we are all orphans, separated from the Father, but by accepting his Son's sacrifice and sacrificing ourselves to him, we become his adopted, glorified, righteous, blameless children and I do not know a more beautiful and redeeming expression of love and forgiveness.

Blessings and Peace in YHWY, Jesus Christ, Ruach Hakodesh