Where Is God Now Ministries

In order to see God in your everyday circumstances, your heart must be pure. When your heart is open and pure, it makes it easy for you to choose to see God. If your heart is hard and closed it makes it difficult to see God because you have not cultivated an intimate relationship with Him. That is what God wants most from us is an intimate relationship with Him. He is our Maker. He already knows us through and through, inside out. Once you cultivate and build your intimate relationship with God it makes it easier to develop your child-like faith we talked about in an earlier blog. It is the child-like faith and the pure heart working together to enable you to see God.

Obedience to God helps to cultivate this intimate relationship, too. Through obedience you learn to trust God. God did not promise us a life of ease. He did not promise a life free from problems. That would be asking for a fairy tale life. No, because we live in a fallen sinful world we all will have hurts, heartaches, and pains in this life. What God has promised to do is not leave us or forsake us in the midst of our hurts, heartaches, and pains. Sometimes He may remove a bad problem or situation we may be in; however, most of the time he will walk with us through it. He helps us to make the right choices in those difficult situations. We don’t always want to do it because our flesh begs to have its way and get some satisfaction for what is being done to us. God’s way is to strengthen us so we may represent Jesus in those situations instead of resulting in tactics that Satan will use to create more havoc and chaos in our lives. Once you realize the transformation of choosing to be loving, choosing to be peaceful, choosing the Fruit of the Spirit to bear out in your life, you realize God has your heart and He is here to help you to be more like Jesus, which is a beautiful place to be!

We are not of this world! Once our hearts belong to God the realization of this world is not our eternal home sets in. When we start to look at things from a worldly perspective we start to sink because things of this world are not pure. We become discontent. We start to take on the characteristics of Satan. That impure heart becomes far, far, away from God. In Philippians 4:8 we read those things we should think on constantly,  “ Finally,  brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” We are charged to think on things that are good, pure, lovely… good things! This helps to keep our heart pure as well; God has given each of us an assignment here on earth. It does not look like anyone else’s assignment, because the plans He has for me is different from the plans He has for someone else. Think about that. God has a specific plan just for YOU! So run your race with the child-like faith and pure heart God wants you to have. These are the things you will find most fulfilling in your life when you run the race God has anointed on your life. These things God anoints on your life you will find you do them with ease. It feels natural to you! Why? It is because God has blessed you with it. So keep your eyes on God and you will see Him, with your child-like faith and pure heart. Thank you for joining me this week. Join me next week for the next chapter in the book, Where Is God!? Blessed Are The Pure In Heart For They Shall See God, Acts of Kindness. Stay safe from COVID-19. Love & Blessings.

We have ALL asked the question one time or another in our lives, “Where is God?” Usually it is after a great disappointment or tragedy in our lives. We wonder how God could let such a thing happen. It affects our Faith. Then some start to wonder if there is really a God. If there is anyone who is good at his job, it is Satan. His job is to kill, steal, and destroy our Faith. He is relentless and persistent in his mission. As mentioned in last week’s blog he is defeated and he wants to take as many with him as he can. We have to recognize Satan’s schemes and shenanigans in our lives and know what he is trying to do. This is the importance of having an intimate relationship with God. Like any other intimate relationships you have in your lives, you get to know that person fairly well. God wants us to distinguish when He is speaking to us and when Satan is lying to us. As I share in the book, Where is God!? Blessed Are The Pure In Heart For They Shall See God, we have to choose to see God in our lives. When you discover WHO He is you start to recognize Him in your life.

As you start to cultivate your relationship with God, you start to see and recognize ways and patterns He operates or shows up in your life. I like to call them “Hallmarks” because in your inner being in your spirit you know it is God showing up or helping you in your life. This is seeing God! For example, in my journey I noticed God was constantly showing up when I would lose a piece of jewelry. Some people when they lose their jewelry they never see it again. Here I was on numerous, countless occasions losing my jewelry and being able to find it. It started to become a little embarrassing for me because I was constantly asking people if they have seen the piece of jewelry I have lost. I was wondering if they were thinking why I couldn’t hold on to my jewelry. However, I later came to the realization God was using me to let people know God can help you with every little thing that goes on in your life, even losing a piece of jewelry and finding it! The message for me and people I would share this with was God is not too small or too busy. He is Almighty and He can do ANTHING!  It was awesome to experience! It was happening so frequently that I knew it was God showing up in my life.

I also believe God was using these situations to first have me to recognize Him and second to cultivate a deeper relationship with Him. Those experiences helped me to expand my sensitivity in SEEING God. I started noticing Him giving me favor when I went to a crowded parking area and all of a sudden I would find a parking space very close to the door of the place I was visiting or I would see someone pulling out of a parking space as I started my search. In each of these instances with finding my jewelry and parking space, I thanked God. I blessed God. If the opportunity presented itself, I would share with others my experience. I have stories on top of stories I will share in an upcoming book on how God showed up in my life. I started realizing if God resides in my heart, He is truly ALL around me every day. I don’t have to wait for some big encounter to see God. The mere fact I woke up from a restful night of sleep was God showing up in my life. He could have easily ushered me into heaven with Him, but because He did not do that let me know it was not my time yet. God still has other things here on earth He needs me to do to help build His kingdom and bring others to Him. In the midst of this journey with God, I realized we take so many of our blessings for granted, such as breathing and waking up from sleep. I realized we take God for granted. God is a patient and merciful God. His is loving and kind. A question to ask during this COVID pandemic and the world’s protest against racial injustice we have seen is, Is God Speaking? I believe He is speaking to the world and to us individually. Do not miss the beautiful moments and encounters to see God in your life. Open your heart to Christ. Harden not your heart of the things of God. Thank you for joining me this week. Next week we will discuss the next chapter in the book, Pure Heart. I’ll see you next week! Stay safe from COVID-19. Love & Blessings

Once again I have decided to change my narrative this week. Last week at the end of my post, I was going to talk about Seeing God, the next chapter in the book, Where Is God!? Blessed Are The Pure In Heart For They Shall See God. Instead, this week I am going to continue to talk about Transformation. Not only continue in the light of how we are transformed into likeness of Christ, but also in the light of Racism and Police Brutality in the death of George Floyd, the black man we saw murdered by police on national television. It has touched the hearts of millions of people just as this COVID-19 has affected millions across the world. In the light of our world events, I believe Transformation deserves more light and attention as we ALL look for a change in our society on many levels. Truly, we are seeking Justice For ALL.

As we move forward with the COVID-19 pandemic and the courageous dialogue needed about racism and police brutality in our world and in continuing my blog on Transformation, racism is nothing new in our world. It was here before Jesus walked the earth. The Israelites were in bondage for over 400 years before they were set free by the forceful hand of God.  God often uses people to get his work done. In the instance with the Israelites He used Moses. It is interesting that the death of George Floyd, the black man who the world witnessed his murder at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers, unveiled the racism and police brutality across the world in other countries and nations. The cruelty and mistreatment of mankind needs to stop across the board. Because we are human beings and we are not perfect, unfortunately racism will be with us until God comes for His people. This world that we know will be no more. I do believe racism can be improved upon tremendously if we have courageous dialogue and effective polices and laws put into place. To say it will be eradicated is to say we live in a utopia and we do not. This is a matter of legislating our heart. Again, this is why God is asking us to give our hearts to him. Only He can change a person.

Racism is an attitude. It is a mistreatment of another race because they are different and built on misconceptions. It is a bad spirit in one’s psyche. It is a demonic spirit to take another human being down. It is Satan using his daggers to kill, steal, and destroy the human race! Satan knows he is defeated. It is why He is so miserable. His aim is to take as many people with Him as he can. This is a good description of the phrase, “Misery loves company.” Satan does not want to be alone in hell by himself. Simply put… He wants company. He does not play fair and he does   not fight fair because he wants as much company as he can get. So how do we defeat him? By the renewing of our hearts and minds here on earth, it is part of the transformation we need to have to live a victorious Christian life.

This transformation of our hearts and minds is deeper than what we think. It is more to it that meets the natural eye. It is the molding, shaping, and pruning of our hearts and minds. It is looking to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, who is our supreme example of how we should be and walk this Christian life. It is not easy. It hurts sometimes. When you talk about molding, shaping and pruning, the process is not pretty, but the end results give us the fruit of the spirit in our lives of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This is what we are aiming for. When we can think like Jesus and do like Jesus our world becomes a better place. It is something we should strive for each and every day. That is the transformative spirit we all should seek…Amen.  It will not remove the problem of racism, police brutality, and the multitude of other sins we deal with in this world, but hopefully with reformation of laws, policies, and attitudes, All people will feel like, Justice Is For All. Next week we will delve deeper in the next chapter, Seeing God. Thank you for joining me this week. I’ll see you next week. Stay safe from COVID-19. Love & Blessings!  

“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8) How can we see God? God shows himself to us Every Day! It is up to us to see Him, if we are paying attention. Seeing God every day is a process. As a matter of fact, our whole journey with God is a process and we move from glory to glory, step by step to higher and higher levels with Him! He gives us our DAILY BREAD every day, if we choose to eat it. So, we must FEED OUR FAITH daily. When we feed our faith daily we become transformed. Butterflies are beautiful transformative creatures. God transforms is from glory to glory as we mature in Him. Part of the transformation is the renewing of our hearts, minds, soul, and spirit. We are transformed more and more each day like JESUS. It is IMPOSSIBLE to live the Christian life in our own strength. We just CANNOT do it. The things that God has asked us to do we cannot do on our own. It is why he sent his son, Jesus, to help us. However, we MUST first accept Jesus before he can help us on a daily basis. Because of God’s GOODNESS, MERCY, and GRACE, He helps us ALL. Yes, those who believe and those who do not believe. However, our ETERNAL life is at stake. That is the importance of accepting JESUS.

Knowing that God shows His kindness to us daily, let’s explore this truth a little deeper. If you are reading this blog, it is an act of kindness of God toward you. Why? YOU ARE BREATHING! There are so many things God does for us that we have taken it for granted. GOD GIVES US EACH AND EVERY BREATH WE TAKE. That is kindness. We know people who struggle to take their next breathe every day. One of the symptoms of COVID-19, people have a difficult time breathing. I find that interesting that something many people do every day without really thinking twice about it because it is something we do naturally, that God can put a stop to it at any time. When He decides to do it permanently means we will eternally be with Him for those who have accepted His son, Jesus Christ. This brings me to the second HUGE act of kindness God showed mankind, He GAVE His son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins so that we may spend eternal life with him. Just these two acts of kindness shown to us by God should be enough to make us thankful and grateful each day! And so no act of kindness is too small. As a matter of fact if we can show thankfulness and gratefulness for those small acts of kindness, as in Chapter 5, I refer to them as stepping stones to build our child-like faith. In essence it is part of the transformation. They all work together to get us where we need to be in Christ.

In the book, Where Is God!? Blessed Are The Pure In Heart For They Shall See God in Chapter 5, we discuss more what it looks like to See God and more specifically in acts of kindness. Kindness is one attribute of God; therefore, Jesus modeled it while He walked the earth. We are to bless people with kindness. It should show up in our words and actions towards each other. It is an attitude of the heart. Additionally, our kindness should not be based on how people treat us; the Jesus in us will HELP usto be the ambassadors of Christ God wants us to be. So, when we talk about SEEING God every day, look for the kindnesses you witness, you see in others, what is shown to you and what you show to others as well. That is God moving and working in you. As we discussed in previous blogs, we are God’s hands, mouth, and feet in this world.

The transformation includes a changing of the mind with a NEW mindset. Again, we are putting down the old man and taking on the new man in Christ. This is where the transformation begins, in the mind. We renew our minds every day in Christ Jesus. So we decide to choose kindness in our walk with the Lord and we KNOW, with the Lord’s help we can do this because God’s spirit already dwells within us. We just have to decide to tap into it every day. The transformation is taking place and it becomes a part of our nature to be kind. Then when we stop to think about it in retrospect, we realize, “Oh, God, this is you working in me!” It is quite a humbling experience to know that God’s spirit is working in you and that he is using you… you just made yourself available for him to use you for His glory. What an AWESOME experience!

So seeing God could look like many good things that you see. For example, in Chapter 5, I talk about someone holding a door open for you is an act of kindness from God. Knowing God does not have to do ANYTHING for us, we should be so appreciative when kindness is shown to us. If God sees you are appreciative over the little acts of kindness that is shown to you, then you will start experiencing more and larger acts of kindnesses that are shown to you. We sometimes refer to them as FAVOR or BLESSINGS! All the while this transformation of your heart is taking place it is becoming pure so that you can see God in ALL things.

We serve a GOOD God. He wants to be good to His children. However, because God knows that Satan is on the prowl and tries to steal, kill, and destroy our faith, God knows He has to help us get where we need to be and it is in the process of transformation. We have to develop a child –like faith. We have to develop a pure heart so we can see God every day and in ALL circumstances, the good and bad. Next week we will delve deeper in the next chapter, Seeing God. Thank you for joining me this week. I’ll see you next week. Stay safe from COVID-19. Love & Blessings!  

There are many mysteries to God we will NEVER understand. If we tried to figure EVERYTHING out that happens to us or that happens in our world, at best, we will become frustrated. God is ever molding, shaping, pruning, breaking, bending, etc., us to become more Christ-like. Jesus is our example. He is our God-man who came on the earth to experience life as we know it. Because He is God, He did it without sin! We are still in our humanity. However, with Jesus being our example, he left us a comforter, the Holy Spirit, to help lead us and guide us in the right direction in life and to help us make good decisions. It is up to us if we want to access these things for an abundant life as discussed in the previous blog!

No one’s life is perfect. We all have challenges, struggles and weaknesses. This is why we have to die daily to self and renew our hearts, mind, soul, and spirit and pick up our cross and decide to follow Jesus EVERY DAY! The first step one must take is to have a relationship with HIM. The relationship is important because it is not humanly possible to live the Christian life on our own. WE CANNOT DO IT! The beauty of the relationship with God is the more you learn about Him, Jesus, His son, and the Holy spirit, the comforter, you become transformed. You start to realize in your life that the Trinity is helping you to do things that in your humanity you would not be able to do, which is AWESOME! As we open ourselves up to God we start to develop a child-like faith. One of the ways we open up to God is knowing His word, which is the Bible. It is the main way God speaks to us!

This relationship with God is worthy! As the book, Where Is God!? Blessed Are The Pure In Heart For They Shall See God alludes to, God is so awesome and amazing that He knows how many strings of hair we have on our head! That is pretty intimate! It is an indication of how well He knows us. When you grasp onto that realization, you cannot deny HE IS GOD! On page 15 in the book, it points to Matthew 18:3, “Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”; hence, this child-like faith. We are to come to God as little children leaning and depending on Him for our EVERYTHING! When you think of God giving you every breath you breathe you REALIZE how much you need Him. Interestingly, this COVID-19 crisis and pandemic affects our respiratory system; the way we breath!

The graciousness of God does not allow Him to be a task master. He is quite the gentleman. He gives us free will and does not wish to control us as robots. He wants us to come to Him lovingly and freely. We are the ones who will decide if we perish or not and be separated from God in the eternal life each of us are destined to. Your child-like faith enables your heart to become pure before God. Again, the process of renewing your heart, mind, and spirit is daily. We have to give our will over to God so he may use us to be His hands, mouth, and feet in this world. It is a beautiful thing! Thanks for joining me again this week. Next week we will explore our next chapter on Kindness… I’ll see you then! Stay safe from COVID-19. Love and Blessings!

Once we develop our child-like faith, the fruit of the Spirit should start to inhabit our being. Some fruit will be more dominate than others. The fruit of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The more we take on the characteristics of Jesus, the more we will manifest these fruit. God shows each of these fruit to us constantly. Jesus demonstrated how these fruit looked when he walked the earth. So these fruit should be a part of our journey and of our life. The key is to realize we cannot display these fruit in our own strength. It is not humanly possible to display them on a consistent basis, but through the help of Jesus and through God’s supernatural strength we can show the fruit of the Spirit to the world consistently. The beauty is you realize it is God working his spirit within your spirit to get his work done… How AWESOME is that!?

Kindness is a fruit that is easily recognizable in people. Although sometimes mistaken as weakness and naivety, kindness takes courage and strength. It usually shows up in a person’s disposition with a smile. It may present as someone being considerate and holding a door open for you as stated in the book, Where Is God!? Blessed Are The Pure In Heart For They Shall See God. It is showing concern for our fellow man and helping them out when we can. It celebrates with others’ accomplishments and achievements in life. The world’s way of thinking is survival of the fittest. In other words, it is focused on self and likes to get tangled into competition and comparisons. Sadly, when you do not engage in these things, the world looks at you as strange. Well, God said we are a peculiar people (Deuteronomy 14:2).  It is nothing like God’s word bearing true in our lives, right? It’s not always pleasant, but it rings true.  However, usually one’s kindness leaves an indelible mark on people. People usually remember the kindnesses that have been shown them. Often you will hear them say, “I will never forget this” or “I will never forget what you did for me.” Kindness also usually leave people with an unforgettable feeling of someone really caring about them. It’s the same as we feel when God has shown us kindness. Sometimes God will “wink’ at us with his kindness of the favor and blessings He does in our lives. Some of them are truly unforgettable.

Satan tries to twist and corrupt the kindness that is shown in our lives. He first does this when God shows His kindness to us. Sometimes we don’t even recognize God is “winking” at us, showing himself to us. It is the beautiful FAVOR we see in our lives. When we have the child-like faith and pure heart, we can see God’s kindness to us. However, if our hearts are hard and not sensitive to God and His ways we will not see it. Satan will also plant seeds of suspension in people when kindness is shown to them. They cannot accept it and think the person wants something from them so it makes them uncomfortable. It is hard for them to accept that kindness is a characteristic of God and He uses people to manifest it.

So God is showing us kindness constantly. If you are breathing and reading this blog (smile), God is showing you his kindness. One of the blessings of COVID-19 is that is has slowed down our pace and schedules of living our every day lives. I can imagine God saying, “There are no excuses for you to give me some of your time, now.” Think about it. This pandemic is happening across the world! So we are all experiencing similar situations and circumstances. I believe the equalizer is the pandemic. So why not give God some of your time now? Ponder on his kindness towards you. Having the basics in life of food, clothing, and shelter, God is showing his kindness to you. Ponder on all of the other kindnesses God has shown you through out your life. The kindness that God bestows upon us should compel us to want to show kindness to others. Thanks again for joining me this week. Next week, we will talk about Chapter 5 in the book titled, Transformation. I’ll see you then. Stay safe from COVID-19. Love & Blessings! 

Christ has promised us an abundant life! Christ said, “I have come so that you may have life and have it more abundantly (John10:10). Everyone wants an abundant life. The question is, how do we get it? In our world of quick, easy, and instant, some expect an abundant life instantaneously. If Christ said he has come to give it to me then it should be mine, right? Yes! Our abundant life comes from our intimate relationship with God through Christ Jesus. When Jesus suffered, bled, and died on the cross for us, He took care of all of our sin so we could come before God free from sin. That is why Jesus should be so precious to us because He paid it ALL. Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before his presence of his glory with exceeding joy (Jude 24). This is what Jesus has done for us! It is why we can have an abundant life! How PRECIOUS is this!?  And, he did it with EXCEEDING JOY!

This abundant life that we seek to possess is full of FAVOR from God in the spiritual and natural. God wants our hearts and he knows our heart. No need of trying to fool him because He already knows us inside out. However, He makes us stewards of everything he gives us because truly nothing that we have belongs to us. God blesses us to bless others. We should be about kingdom building! We build up God’s kingdom in the natural and in the spirit. So God entrusts us with certain things because He trusts us to build up His kingdom. As stated in Chapter 1 of Where Is God!? Blessed Are The Pure In Heart For They Shall See God, this life is not about us. The sooner we remove ourselves  off the throne of our lives and place God on the throne of our lives, we start to experience this abundant life as Christians. The Fruit of the Spirit should be manifesting in our lives for us to see and others. It is the confirmation that God is using you and working in your life. It is also a privilege that Almighty God is using us to get His work done upon the earth. It will look different for each of us because God has uniquely made each of us, but His power, shine, and glow will show in our lives.

Abundant living involves the renewing f or hearts, minds, soul, and spirit each day. It is a process.  Some days may be easier than others. We all get challenging days in our lives. It is important to realize we cannot do this in our own strength. We have to rely on Jesus to help us. So basically having this abundant life teaches you not to worry about anything because God has already taken care of it. We just have to be faithful and trust God. I often say if you are faithful to God He will be faithful to you. In order to experience this abundant life, you have to develop your child-like faith. You can read in the short chapter how I confess that I am a kept woman. I know that ALL I have experienced is by and through God’s grace and mercy. I purposely looked for God in my life. Deuteronomy 4:29 says, “ But if from there you seek the Lord your God you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.” So if you truly seek God, you will see Him everywhere! You just have to have the child-like faith and pure heart to see Him. The beauty about this abundant life is that it belongs to anyone who chooses to want it in their life. Notice I said chooses because just because you said you want it does not mean you automatically get it. You have to seek God in order to obtain it. In your child-like faith and pure heart will this abundant life open to you. God is not a respecter of persons. So it is mine, yours, and ours to possess, if we truly want and seek it. It will not just fall from the heavens or the sky. However, once experienced, this abundant life, you will not want to go back to the old way of living. Once you open your heart, mind, and soul to God and develop your child-like faith, as I alluded to in the book, you start to see God EVERYWHERE! Thank you for joining me this week. Next week in Chapter 3 we will discuss, Developing A Child-like Faith. Stay safe from COVID-19. Love & Blessings!

Striping away self is painful…initially. It is NEVER easy… initially. Striping away is a process…initially. It is a process of becoming HUMBLE before God. We are realizing and acknowledging we are NOTHING without Him and that we NEED Him. On page 10 in the book, Where Is God!? Blessed Are The Pure In Heart For They Shall See God, it talks about crucifying our flesh or self. As stated before, self is a mess and we must place it on the shelf. Crucifying our flesh is relinquishing those things we may want to say or do that we know is out of the will of God. It is so unnatural for us to do this because usually when we do or say something we know we are not supposed to, depending on the circumstance; sometimes it makes us feel good. We get a sense of satisfaction from it. Sometimes we justify it and say the person deserved what we did or said to them. It satisfied and sometimes massaged our flesh (self). The good news is if it made you feel bad afterward, that is God pricking your conscious chastising you to let you know it was wrong or was not right. If it does not bother you of the wrong thing you did or said, then you need to ask, why? Has your conscious been seared? The bible warns of doing wrong for so long that wrong seems right and right seems wrong (Isaiah 5:20). It is a sign that your heart is so harden toward God that you no longer know the things of Him. Of course, this is exciting for Satan because he has you where he wants you to manipulate you and have you to kill, steal, and destroy others as alluded to in the book. Arrogance, bitterness, pride, fearfulness, and, anxiety are some of the tools Satan uses to keep us for away from God. We do not recognize it because we are so Full of Self. That is why I keep emphasizing we have to put SELF ON THE SHELF because SELF IS A MESS! So, initially when self is being stripped away and we crucify our flesh it is uncomfortable and painful.

The process of crucifying our flesh is something we cannot do on our own. We NEED the supernatural strength of God and Jesus to help us (page 10). The beauty of getting and receiving this supernatural strength is the more you rely on this strength the easier it becomes. This is not to say you will like it, but your spirit is in relationship with God. Part of the process is learning how to lean and depend on Him. We need to look to Jesus to show us the way because Jesus is our example. The Holy Spirit comes along to help us navigate the situation. It truly is a beautiful thing when it all comes together! You realize it is the Almighty God working in my life. You get these first hand experiences with God and after a while the striping away of self is not as painful as it was in the beginning of the process. As you go through the daily process of renewing your heart, mind and spirit and you see how God will fight your battles, you then yield to this process more and more. It becomes a part of the new creation we become in Christ.

One of the BIGGEST revelations Christians can receive in this life is to recognize life is not about US. Satan deceives us to make us believe it is and we become consumed in SELF. Our lives are not about US! In the book, the revelation is our purpose on the earth is about GLORIFYING God! He made us. We are His creation. This is the bigger purpose for our lives. Once we can remove ourselves from the throne of life, it FREES us up to be God’s hands, mouth, and feet in this world. That is the mission for us as Christians to spread the Gospel. However, all of this is done by our choice; God left us with free will. We can continue to serve self and our flesh which ultimately leaves us empty and miserable or we can choose to drink from the fountain with God that will never be empty and that is fulfilling. Again, this is not to say we will have problem free lives, but it gives us an anchor and a foundation to hold on to and stand firm upon because God is our refuge and our strength. He is a very present help in the time of trouble (Psalm 46:1).

Part of having an awesome relationship with God is that the more of flesh or self that is stripped away in your life, you come to the realization, oh, this is not me! This is the Christ that lives in me which the disciples experienced and talked about in the Bible. Now, you and I are experiencing it, too! It is abiding in Christ. The experiences become unforgettable and it gives you the strength to move on, in Jesus’ name! The more we crucify the flesh the less painful it becomes because we become a new creature in Christ. Again, we cannot do it on our own. It will only frustrate and exhaust us. It is why we renew ourselves EVERY DAY. Otherwise, we will slip back into pride and ego thinking I can do this on my own. SAVE YOURSELF and allow the supernatural strength of God to help you. Thank you for joining me this week! Next week, we will talk about, Abundant Life, Chapter 2, in the book. Stay safe from COVID-19… Love & Blessings!

There are sometimes misconceptions about the Christian life that need to be corrected. One in particular is that once you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and you open your heart up to God you will have a problem free life. I will be the first to say that is certainly not the case. Because of sin in the world, no one has a problem free life. If it is not some problem we have caused for ourselves or one that someone else has caused, we will have problems in this life. In Where Is God!? Blessed Are The Pure In Heart For They Shall See God, Chapter 1 titled, Striping Away, hopefully the understanding is clear, there is no problem free life! On page 10, I state, “We all will suffer.” Remember, Christ came to experience EVERYTHING we will experience on the earth. Additionally, John 16:33 (KLV) reminds us, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” So Jesus tells us about the tribulations we will have in this life. Jesus came to teach us how we should handle our tribulations and problems in life. He demonstrated his connection and relationship with God over and over again. Some refer to Jesus as our God-man. Because as Jesus said, “I and the father are one.” (John 10:30).

Oftentimes when we have problems, those HUGE problems that break us or we cannot understand what is going on, we wonder where God is in different ways. We may wonder if the problem came because we stepped out of God’s will. Sometimes we knowingly did step out of God’s will trying to make our own thing happen hoping God will bless it. Then other times when God wants to take us to the next level with Him we experience those growing pains. In those growing pains we should learn to lean and trust on God through the experience. And of course sometimes it is just the messes of living in the fallen world we live in that problems come our way. However, when the problems come, the first conversation and thought should be to God! He has allowed the problem for whatever reason. Remember, God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. We humble ourselves to Him. Our intimate relationship should be so close to Him that He is the first one we should run to. Why? Because He knows the purpose of why he allowed it and he knows how long the problem will last. COVID-19 is a world-wide pandemic. It is clear no one has the answers. Man is trying to figure out a vaccine and in time God will grace that answer to us, but this is truly a time to humble ourselves to Him. For some of us, humbling ourselves to God is easy. For others it is difficult. However, EVERYBODY goes through the process of striping away of self. Again, we have to put self on the shelf.

The subtitle of the book is, Blessed Are The Pure In Heart For They Shall See God, Mathew 5:8. What a beautiful realization! Jesus taught the crowds and us that truly if our hearts are pure, we can see God in everything! But first we have to be striped, ouch! Striping away is a process and it starts in our hearts. We have to have an open heart to God (page 9). It also speaks to the importance of having an intimate relationship with him. When your heart connects with God and you yield your life over to Him, your life is never the same! Once you experience the Fruit of the Spirit working in your life and you experience the presence of God in your life nothing compares. You may have witnessed other people’s passion about God and you know what they are talking about and you know where they are coming from. The love of God in you wants everyone else to have it and experience it too. We can relate to the disciples after they realized after Jesus rose from the grave, that it was everything Jesus told them and that He and God were one and the Holy Spirit was now upon them. However, in order to experience any of this, we have to be stripped away from SELF. SELF is a MESS and it has to be placed on the shelf. When we do not put self on the shelf we harden our hearts to God making it very difficult to see Him and being God’s hands, mouth, and feet in the world. In the book, page 9, says, ” We become confused, fearful, and full of anxiety, hateful, bitter, prideful, and arrogant.” We see much of this in our world today and it creates all kinds of problems for self and other people. Then people wonder why we have no peace. When we harden our hearts to God it is fertile ground for Satan to create havoc in our lives and in the world! When problems come the first thing we have to realize is that God is not the author of confusion. So if the situation is not right the first thing we do is pray and ask God for His help. We have to be tuned in and have that open heart to him to see him and hear what He is saying. Remember, our battle belongs to God and He does not need our help!  However, it would be beneficial for us to cooperate with Him as He leads and guides us through. We will talk more next week about Striping Away. Stay safe from COVID-19… Love & Blessings.

Welcome Back Beautiful People! I’m Gwen your host for this blog,  Where Is God Now and author of, Where is God!? Blessed Are The Pure In Heart For They Shall See God. I pray all is well with you and your family as we remain in place at home to flatten the curve of COVID-19. This is a wonderful opportunity to cultivate and build our relationship with God, our Heavenly Father. He truly is a good God. This is a time to grow our faith and to trust him more. Don’t waste this precious time. Part of trust and faith involves moving forward when you are not sure what the outcome will be, but believing there are things on the other side that are good and will help us to grow.

This week we are still exploring the introduction of the book, Where Is God!? Blessed Are The Pure In Heart For They Shall See God. On page 7, we see we know where God is. He lives within our heart!  He lives in our bodies. He shows up in us when we show the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives of Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control (Galatians 5:22). Because God is a spirit, He has placed the seeds of the Fruit of the Spirit in us. It is something that has to be cultivated in our lives to grow these seeds so that we and others may see. It is part of the Power we have in Jesus Christ. Some of these Fruit may bear witness in our lives more easily than others but we ALL have these Fruit once we accept Christ.

We serve an awesome God who is supernatural! We don’t understand ALL there is to know about Him and why He does what He does. However, He has given us what we need to know to believe He is the one and true God of the universe. It is a choice we make each and every day to believe and trust him. Hence, why we pick up our cross every day to follow his son, Jesus, who came to set us free! Jesus came to earth to show us how these Fruit will look in our lives. He is our model, example of how it is to live it out in our lives daily.

As we live our lives in the world, part of our mission is to be God’s hands, mouth, and feet. This mission should not be strange to us. We have the help of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. However, Satan comes to kill, steal, and destroy the Fruit we try to bear out in our lives. In the book, we refer to him as a masterful deceiver (page 7). Our challenge is to recognize him when he comes to kill, steal, and destroy things in our lives. He is relentless! His ultimate goal is to kill, steal, and destroy our faith! This is why we need Jesus. We cannot complete the mission of being God’s hands, mouth, and feet on our own. We are wise when we can recognize Satan as a masterful deceiver, because when he tries to penetrate our lives, and he comes in many forms, we can exercise, with the help of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, the Fruit of the Spirit against him. Believe me; it upsets him when he knows he is not winning the battle of shaking our faith! We should get some satisfaction, too, in knowing we are not allowing him to win the battle of shaking our faith.

In becoming God’s hands, mouth, and feet in this world we have to place Self on the Shelf. It is difficult to place self on the shelf when we want things our way. Hence, this is why we have to die to self daily. We have to be willing to trust God in everything (page 7). In order to trust God in everything and being able to SEE him in everything, we have to have a child-like faith and a pure heart. This is how we can SEE God in everything. Situations that arise in our life, good or bad, it is wise to recognize God in it. We praise God for the blessings and we try to learn the lessons in the trials. The thing about trials is if we do not learn the lessons God will bring it to us in another situation. I call it, Different Faces Different Places, of learning the spiritual lessons of God. In the Bible, with Moses, the children of Israel are an example of what happens when we do not learn the lessons God has for us. They wondered in the wilderness for 40 years which should have taken them 3 days to get to the promise land God had for them. The murmuring and complaining had them going around in circles.  Has that ever happened to you? Sometimes we wonder in our wilderness, year after year after year. Could it be we are not learning the lessons God is trying to teach us?

When adversities, trials, and tribulations come in our lives, we should ask, “God what do you want me to learn in this situation?”  Or, “Lord, help me to handle this situation in the right way.” Believe me; He will give us the help that we need through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah Praise God! They are our best friends and comfort during those difficult times. Because we truly cannot do it on our own, leaning and depending on them is what we should automatically do. When we are weak God shows himself STRONG in our lives. It is truly a beautiful thing when you think about it. The beauty about our lives is God wastes NOTHING that we go through, good or bad. It is all to grow us up and to become closer and closer to Him. He LOVES us! And we should become more and more like His son, Jesus.  So we look at our trials and tribulations as opportunities to grow. In the natural, we do not necessarily like them, but the sooner we accept and come on board into what God is trying to do in our lives, the sooner we can go through it. God ALWAYS has something better for us on the next level if we shall not faint and make it to the next level… Stay safe from COVID-19. I’ll see you next week! Love & Blessings!