All posts filed under: Musing Moments

A Time to Grow & A Time to Rest by Briana Lassiter

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This week I was having a conversation with the Lord and telling Him how sorry I was that I haven’t made a lot of progress in my life or grown much lately. It’s been a difficult few months and life has not felt full of sunshine and rainbows. He startled me with His response as He asked me “Why do you think you need to grow right now daughter?” Recently He’s told me how much He dislikes it when I answer without thinking about what He’s asking me so I stopped and thought carefully for a minute. I came up with nothing and finally answered, “I don’t know Lord.” “What season is it?” He responded. “Winter, Lord?” “Yes. It is winter. What is growing now child? Nothing. Nothing is growing right now because it is not the time for growing.” As I realized that day in my talk with Jesus, there is a season for everything, and sometimes you are not in a season of growing and it is time to do something else. Over …

Preparing to Prosper in What Looks Like a Drought

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Scrolling through the Stories feed on my author’s Instagram account, @candicecoateswrites, I came across a comedic meme that read, “So in the middle of the Civil War, someone was like “You know what this country needs? A delicious steak sauce.“.” If you are not familiar with what steak sauce I am talking about, it is good ole’ A1 Steak Sauce. Now here is the thing, the sauce, which started to get more widely known in 1862, was actually created by a European chef in Europe and wasn’t even introduced to America until 1895.** Although not American in origin, and actually created three decades before the Civil War, the idea and even deeper truth behind the comedic meme still stands.** What is that meaning? That we must be willing to create and pursue our vision even in the midst of tremulous times. We must have the faith to plan beyond the drought. NOT HINDERED BY THE MOUNTAINS A beautiful example of this can be found in the life and love story of Black American Nurse in …

Falling in Faith: The Beauty of the Balance Beam

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“Though a righteous man falls seven times, he will get up…” ~PROVERBS 24:16 Two decades ago, I was a young woman still in her teens but fully adult. I was finally in the world on my own–away from home in undergrad studying art–and learning who I truly was in Christ when the usual comforts of the familiar were nowhere to be found. The choices I made were my own. Where I went, who I hung out with, what I ate, how much detergent I put in my laundry. All the choices–all my own to make. I am grateful that at the very beginning of that path the Lord seemed to shine with a brighter and more defined light than He had been before. No, He was not distant from me before, but things were much clearer. We walked even closer than we had been before but how He began to relate to me was much different. I was growing. I was now an adult. Things were different and with that shift, there were some major …

Prophetic Word Going into 2020 by Briana Lassiter

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*A Word spoken from the heart of  King Jesus for His children this new season. This is a season of increase where hopeful hearts are mended by the manifestation of the promises of God, where a riot of the roar of God uproots the enemy and spoils their camps. This is a season that is yours for the taking. Unprecedented wealth of nations is yours. For MY kingdom has come. The windows are open, open your arms to receive. Open your hearts to receive Me. What is being entrusted to you has not been entrusted to generations before. Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. My will is done. You are cleansed, you are blessed, you are appointed. This is a season of purging and cleansing so you can receive from my heart all that my heart desires for you. You are receiving new revelation, new revelation of fire, by fire. You are being purified blessed and cleansed. Come, my love, there is more work to do. And you have not yet begun to …

In Due Season: A Word of Faith

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“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” ~GALATIANS 6:9 In this life, there are going to be multiple or even enumerable times that you receive a Word form The Lord, or a nudging, to achieve a goal or go higher than you currently stand in your life, be that in character, faith, etcetera. Eagerly you attempt through agreement with this nudging to do and be what He has placed in your heart to do and be and more often than not you face MAJOR struggle and resistance from seemingly every side, and it may even appear that nothing is changing. This can be discouraging to say the least. But I want to remind you as I remind myself, that the tickle or the pebble that stays in your shoe and keeps you focused on that seemingly impossible word, that discomfort that makes you desire the change, even more, is the CHANGE itself happening. A butterfly coming out of its cocoon struggles against …

Thanksgiving Special Note from Candice Coates

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With the Thanksgiving holiday just a few days away, we at ICFTS want to say thank you. Thank you for your support, thank you for your comments, and thank you for your prayers. It is such a delight to journey into the divine creative destinies that Christ has in store for us and is inviting us to decorate in detail alongside Him. We pray that each of you has the most amazing thanksgiving and that you remember each and every day is a day worth being thankful for. As we gear up for the last few weeks of, not only 2019, but this decade, we wanted to let you know that we will be back and ready to dream, imagine, believe, do, and conquer the adventures that await each of us in 2020! We will see you on the other side of the coming New Year! Candice, Founder of ICFTS ~Dream. Imagine. Believe. Do. CONQUER!

Not Just Favored, But the Favorite by Briana Lassiter

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It’s God’s deep desire for us to know who we are to Him. We are the dreams from His heart that He brought to life, we are not just inheritors of all His promises and blessings, we are not just in a covenant familial relationship with almighty God; we are more than that. Each one of us is His favorite. In case you are questioning your place with Him today, or maybe you just don’t know what you are to Him or your place in His heart, I want you to know that there’s nothing He does not know about you, there’s nothing that is hidden from Him. He does not view you from your frame of reference, He sees you from His, everything you’ve ever been, and everything you will be, He sees. He treasures every moment you’ve made Him proud, and He cheers you on when you are struggling. He has never been passive toward you. No matter what you have seen or what your frame of reference has been, I want you …

Fulfilling Traditions by Rachael Ritchey

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When I was a kid, we moved far from my big extended family with whom we celebrated Christmas every year. From then on, it was always just the four of us. That wasn’t so bad, and we had traditions we continued, like decorating the tree after Thanksgiving, eating turkey, marking the advent calendar, and devouring the yummiest green Jell-O in the world. Growing up, I loved participating in these things, but the holidays look different for each of us. Some of us don’t like the idea of doing something just because it’s always been done, but traditions don’t need to be rote or boring. Traditions are beliefs, customs, and actions passed down from generation to generation. As believers, we have a unique and special opportunity to not only teach the next generation the reason for our joy, but we get to remind ourselves and each other what we’ve been given. Jonathan Edwards once said, “The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied.” Traditions we have with our families …

Thanksgiving in Every Step

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“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord And He delights in his way.” ~PSALM 37:23 The beauty of living our lives to the glory of Christ is that we can rest in the full assurance that no matter where our foot may fall, whether circumstances seem good, bad, or neutral, that our steps are ordered by God our Father. Now don’t misunderstand. This doesn’t mean that we, in our ‘good intentions’ can’t get ourselves off track and go places God never ordained or intended, because the truth is that we all have. What it means is that, if we find that we have made a bad step, the Lord is not only able but faithful to work that step to our good (ROMANS 8:28). He is able to turn what our own misguided direction wrought into something good. Let us give thanks for that! Let us give thanks that because we are now His righteousness through faith (II COR. 5:21, we are assured of always gaining victory. Let us give thanks that our repentance, turning …

The Triumph in the Trial by Briana Lassiter

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When trials come at us it feels very overwhelming in the midst of it, and the unpredictability of whether or not we will make it through can try to weigh on us and make it feel impossible to ever come through at all, much less successfully. However before we ever even entered the trial, we have the predicted outcome already set, as it says in 2 Corinthians 2:14, “Now thanks be to God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ, and makes manifest the aroma of his knowledge by us in every place.” We can trust Him no matter what we are dealing with today, that in every situation He has an outcome of triumph for us. We can trust Him that whatever impossible situations we may face, nothing is impossible for Him, and He works all things together for our good because He loves us and has called us according to His purposes. Trust Him today to get you to your triumph, and allow the truth of what He Himself said to wash …