No More Trauma

The great R&B prophet Mary J. Blige said no more drama in her life, but you will always have drama when you have not dealt with the trauma that causes the drama. Trauma can make a nice person mean, a present father absent, a man of God a dwelling place for the devil. Personality shifts. PTSD. The crazy thing is the stuff that we have been through sticks to us and continues to weigh us down until it is so heavy that we are stopped in our tracks trying to figure out how to move on. The trauma effects so many aspects of our lives. You don't know how to treat a good man because you have been shaped by the last 5 no good negros before him. Trauma. You keep cheating on your wife because you saw your daddy cheat on your momma. Trauma. You can't see your purpose because you are distracted by negative people surrounding you. Trauma. The truth is that we only notice our actions in drama, but in reality our trauma has built our current character which makes our conduct dramatic trauma.  The way we handle things are based on what we have been through. Trauma.  But trauma is not a life sentence. John Calvin wrote, " I leave these wounds untouched, because they appear to me incurable until the Lord applies his hand." When God applies his hands, He heals the wounds and reshapes your character because He knows that your conduct is just an expression of the content of your character. The trauma has changed who you were intended to be. Once you start to be honest about the pain and allow God to work you can get to the root of the trauma.  A weed will continue to grow if you only deal with what is on the surface. Dig at the root instead of cutting at the stem only then will you solve the problem. Trauma is hard to deal with and hard to recognize but you have to remember that God is faithful and the things that he allows you to go through are necessary pain for necessary growth.

2 Corinthians 1:3-5
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ”

The Devil Comes to Kill, Steal and Destroy.

Everyone knows the pasage in the the bible, "The Devil Comes to Kill, Steal and Destroy."  But there is a process to block the enemy and he knows this. So he attacks the process. He comes to kill your faith, steal your experience and destroy your memory.

Kill your faith: It all begins with Faith! It's what we trust in but don't see that keeps us going. The devil is a tricky mutha (shut yo mouth). He knows if he can kill your Faith, the body will fall. He's a wolf in sheeps clothing. He's a dude with good game, tattos, a nice smile, a sixpack and a little piece of change. He's a bad chick with a phat asset, long hair, pretty face and easy access. He's a pastor in a 3 piece suit, bible case in hand, in the pulpit preaching on Sunday. The devil wants to gain your trust so he can kill your faith. He will send your fantasy to be your assassin. 

Steal your Experience: The devil wants to highlight the storm of the experience to you, so you don't fully realize the journey of the Experience is leading you to, the Results. You have to be tested before you can get your results. You can't pass a test if you have never been introduced to the subject.  There are so many of us that have been robbed of the experience so we never know better to do better. The devil wants to rob you of your experience so when you face a storm you would have never experienced God's victory in your test. Then when you continously face hard times, your Faith can be broken because you have not experienced God's deliverance.

Destroy your memory: He wants you to forget what God has done in your life so you can no longer see the end results.  He wants to steal your experience by destroying your memory so the next time you go through the same storm, the same situation you will forget that was God Present every step of the way. So if you remember the experience that God has delivered you from, your faith will be stronger and that will block the devil from coming to killl, steal and destroy in you life.  The reason the devil does not want you to get to your results, is because, once you see the Results are GOOD, once you see there is a Blessing at the end of the test, once you see that GOD has, God will and God will continue to deliver you in your past, present and future the devill will have to get thee behind me. Going into this new year, don't let the devil come to Kill, Steal and Destroy the victory God has placed over your life through your FAITH, EXPERIENCE and MEMORY that God is good and He will continue to be Good for those who trust in Him.

I Found A Good Thing......

God favors a man that finds his wife.....The reason I am writing this today is because I can't stop thinking about you, and I can't stop myself from imagining how happy we will be. I ran from this day for a long time. Not because of you but because I was unable to get out of my way and understand my emotions. I haven't completely moved out my way but I have gotten better and this is how I got here today. The crazy thing is I knew this was God's plan for us from the very beginning. The first day we stayed on the phone for hours and i could feel your spirit through the phone. Yes we have had some fights, break ups to make ups, i love you but hate you Jodi times, but I believe in my heart that has made us stronger. But what I love the most about you is, You prayed for me even when I didn't pray for myself. When the world tears me down, you believe that i'm a superhero and make it happen for my family. You have opened my eyes towards my destiny. Sometimes my stubbornness does not allow me to see it but I know that you love me. Look, I don't know all of the difficulties that are before us with this lifetime commitment, but my faith in God makes the faith in us powerful. I promise I will always look at you with the same adoration as I did the moment I realized I loved you. On August 5th, I vow to love you as God loves you. I vow to challenge you to challenge yourself for the better; to make you think differently. I promise to try to inspire to do the same with myself. I promise to strive to be a role model for our children. I want both you and them to see me as a source of motivation. I hope this day is special for you as this time with you has been for me. I have found my good thing. 

Prayer:

You, God, are a shield around us. You protect us from the enemy who seeks to destroy us. Your arm is mighty, and Your Word is powerful. When the enemy attacks my wife, let her faith in You protect her so that she may stand her ground. Bring your Word to her mind so that she may turn aside his assaults and fight the good fight. Help her to remember that You give us the victory through Christ Jesus. Help her to love me through all my failures while I learn to love her as Christ loves the church. May we see each other as You see us, and may we enjoy fulfilling each other’s desires in our marriage.

Jan 23rd

January 23rd will be in my heart and thoughts forever. The day i felt like i lost the most precious treasure i never appreciated until it was gone. But its crazy how God uses certain vessels  and remove certain treasures to make you realize that death, time and love are a designed gift from the one who loves us the most. So for those of you that struggle with the loss of a love one like i do, remember this one thing; Nothings ever really dead if you look at it right.... I miss you momma, Kim Flowers but I realize now that your death opened up purpose for life.
 "We are confident, I say, and would rather be away from this body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in this body or at home with the Lord."
2 Corinthians 5:8‭-‬9 NIV

When God makes you uncomfortable in your transition. ...

We are so use to God providing our every need. We get comfortable in knowing that God will make a way. We get use to the tradition of fixing problems the same way we fixed them before. Parent the way our parents parented, pray the way our grandmamma prayed, live according to the way it was and not the way it is. But What do you do when those things stop working? What do you do when God begins to require something from you? God has fed you the same way for years and then……. He changes up on you. You are no longer receiving the meals like before and when you try to do what you have always done, there is no food. You start to worry, you start to doubt, and you lose faith and question God. The same God that has always provided. But see you are so blinded by your comfort you are no longer seeing God work. Your comfort brings content, content brings stillness, stillness turns to lazy and lazy makes you lost. Now you’re starving because you think He has left you. But in reality, in midst of your comfort, while lying in your bed of content and being fed at your table of stillness, you became stuck. God has to make you uncomfortable to get you back on course to your promise. So no God did not leave you, He just moved the location where you were use to being fed so you can get back on the path to your promise. Don’t allow yourself to be stuck in the crowd trying to fit in and now you are stuck in your own comfort and stop moving towards what is yours. God will make you uncomfortable and if you don’t recognize it in time, you will be stuck and you will starve. Recognize the transition.

Me vs Myself........

As I stand here in the midst of myself fighting a battle with an enemy who seems undefeated, I see no one around but I still feel like i'm losing the fight. My Flesh and mind attacking my spirit and my spirit protecting my soul. The war continues with everybody watching but no one around me really seeing what's going on. It's like police brutality on my brothers of Merika in my daily walk. Pinned down, can't breathe, black hoodie on just trying to get home. My shadow is behind me blocking the light of my destiny. It sometimes feels like i'm being teased by a bully for trying to do the right thing. When I try to walk the right path, my body becomes nervous, my mind has doubt, I turn back around and find comfort in my shadows darkness. Man my mind is playing tricks on me. It feels like i'm trapped within myself. I'm shouting out, " Lord God I need you!" The Lord says, "I made a promise. I will never leave you nor forsake you. I live inside you. Once you get out the way and let my light shine through you, the darkness will disappear. You will walk into your greatness. I have plans for you and I will not allow you to mess them up." See the devil wants to keep you occupied fighting a battle of doubt of yourself. Distracting you from the greatness that you were pre destined to be. But the God that lives inside you protects your soul and once we realize that God is in you, stop fighting against ourselves and quit running from our purpose, the light that of God inside you will begin to shine on the outside showing that I am protected by God and nothing can penetrate this armor that I am wearing.

Dear God,
Thank You. Thank you for protecting me as I battle those things around me. As I strive to be closer to You, thank you for knowing I am flawed and I come up short. Thank you for reassuring me that you are God and what you said is so. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadows of death, I am not afraid as you are always with me. In Jesus Name, AMEN.......

Going Under the Knife.....

Some of us need to get surgery on ourselves, our spirit, our faith and relationship with GOD. For years I have conditioned myself to be the person I am today. Same attitude towards people, eat the same foods, watch the same shows, do the same things the same way at the same time and got the same d*mn results. You see I have always been a self sufficient, don't ask anybody for anything type of person, but the older I get and the more I see reality, I see that's not being real. Change is impossible until you are willing to change. Pride can be your biggest strength and your biggest weakness. The Bible says that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” I realized, over these years I have not received God's full grace over my life because i have been too focused on trying maintain me and not being willing to God's reconstructive surgery. I have to be a patient while being patient as he digs deeper and deeper inside me, renewing, re-figuring, re-organizing the things that I tried to mask with duct tape and bubble gum. God performs surgery to put me back into my original state that I see as new. God spoke to me and said, "you have been destined to be great since I created you, but your pride blinded you from your greatness. I have tried to provide a way of escaping your selfishness. But you could not see. Now that you have humbled yourself, I have resuscitated your spirit, revived your faith and resurrected your life."

Humble yourselves, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he will lift you up. 1 Peter 5:6