Tag: Jesus

Capturing Your Vision: Week 4 in Free Creative Course #SeizetheDream #Goals #MondayMotivation #CreativeMotivation

Published on by Candice Coates6 Comments

Welcome to Week 4 of Sow Seeds & Seize the Dream FREE 12-Week Creative Journey Course!

I hope you took the time to go over your journals, process and meditate over the answers that you gave to the previous week’s questions. Taking the occasional look in the rear-view mirrors of ours as we traverse our creative roads, enables us to stay fully engaged in the traveling process.

When we take the glance backward, we are able to be assured of our progress even as we move ahead. We are also reminded of why we set out in the first place.

Having little to no knowledge of your destination, flying by the seat of your pants, if you will, only leads to devastation at the most, and at the least, disappointment.

The week’s Module is all about harnessing your VISION. In order to go ‘somewhere,’ we have to have a destination in mind.

We’ve all heard the cliche story of having an open plan ticket, just being able to show up at the airport and just fly anywhere in the world. While that concept sounds great, the excitement and the thrill of the journey is minimized by the lack of ‘knowledge’ in regard to where you are headed.

Having little to no knowledge of your destination, flying by the seat of your pants, if you will, only leads to devastation at the most, and at the least, disappointment.

pexels-photo-352902But when we have taken the time to research our desired destination, make a plan/vision for the place we are headed, no matter the hiccups that may come along the way, we are still able to enjoy and get the most out of our journey’s because we prepared ourselves for the inevitable ‘what-ifs’ that come along in life. We are also able to avoid many pitfalls as well.

THE IMPORTANCE OF VISION AND KNOWLEDGE

To have KNOWLEDGE is to have a level of understanding and practical information about what you are about to do. It is a necessary item in your Creative Tool Box, used to best create a viable plan for your VISION which is the desired goal and destination for your journey.

The book of Proverbs gives us a very sobering warning about a world without vision. It tells us that people run unrestrained without vision. Some translations say the people perish. Think what happens when a river runs unrestrained. Devastation and sorrow are left in its wake. (Proverbs 29:18)

The Book of Hosea tells us the people perish for lack of knowledge as well (Hosea 4:6).

What this goes to show is that in order to be a success and to prosper in your life and goals you must have a vision and gainful knowledge.  You must take the time to use knowledge to set your course for your vision if you have any promise of achieving your desired destination (See Luke 14:28-32).

THE GIFT OF VISION

If you are wondering at this point if you even have a vision let alone the knowledge to pursue it, take heart! You absolutely do.

Proverbs 29:13 tells us that our Heavenly Father created all of us, rich and poor, with sight or vision. Ultimately, the choice to develop or discover our vision is up to us. But we all have them.

MAPPING OUT YOUR VISION

As mentioned in the Module titled Establishing (Read through the previous article for more detailed explanations of each step) there are 4 Ways steps we must take to map out our Vision and create a wise strategy for our creative journey.

  • Who we are: Before you set out, you must be confident in who you are. Obstacles will challenge you, try to push you into calling into question who you are and what you are doing. Being fully established in WHO you are will act as a shield against these assaults against your confidence.
  • Where we are: Acknowledging your current position, as well as the skills and tools you currently have on hand, will better prepare you for what you can begin to do now in order to start your creative process.
  • Where we are going: Having a destination in mind will enable you to properly prepare for what lies ahead. Don’t start out with an open ‘ticket’ and just dive without knowing how far you may have to fall. Set your course and plan accordingly. Do your research.
  • Declare WHY you are going to that destination in the first place: What is is that you are seeking in this place you have decided to journey? This is where you ‘declare’ your vision.
    • I am going _________________________ because I want ____________________________.

CREATIVE FAITH IN ACTION

(If you haven’t already answered these questions, now is a great time to do so)

  • What is it that you are seeking to do?/Why are you moved to do it?: WRITE THIS DOWN AND PLACE IT IN YOUR CREATIVE WORK SPACE.
  • Write down an affirmation about who you are using scriptures that resonate with you and build your confidence.
    • Keep this affirmation in your Creative Space
    • Read it out loud and Meditate on its truth daily

SCRIPTURE FOCUS

ADDITIONAL READING

COMMUNITY QUESTIONS

  • How has the process of trying to accomplish your goals without a clear vision or proper knowledge hindered you?
  • What have been some factors that have pushed you to start “building” your dream without the proper vision, knowledge or preparation?
  • What is your definition of Vision
  • What are some creative resources you have found that have helped you along your creative journey?
  • What are some things you would advise other Creatives to keep in mind while they are pursuing their Vision

Please share your wisdom and advice in the comments below.

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT THIS 12 WEEK JOURNEY, SEE Gearing Up to Prepare for Your Creative Success: Seeds We Sow

~Dream. Imagine. Believe. Do. CONQUER!

Let Go: How I Learned to Step into My Dreams #MotivationMonday #SiezetheDream #Creative

Published on by Candice Coates5 Comments

Perfection has a price, but I cannot afford to live that life. It always ends the same; a fight I never win. Oh control. It’s time, time to let you go.” -JJ Heller

A few years back, on my birthday, I woke up after having an incredible dream. The dream was prophetic for my personal future. It hit straight to the core of some inner struggles I had been having. It gave me a greater hope for the future that I am now living.

For several years I had felt like I had fallen into a dark well or a completely lifeless creative downward spiral. Sure, I had been making art, commissions, and though I was pleased with the outcome of each, I have to say they were indeed lifeless … to me.

I was so detached from these paintings that I didn’t even really bother archiving them for my own portfolio. That says something. It says a lot.  My writing was like swimming through mud.

I had gone on a rampage to control everything in my life that I could. My art was controlled. There could be no mistakes in it, which meant I hardly ever created anything. My writing had to be flawless. And because it wasn’t, because I couldn’t really control it, I began to grow duller.

Spiritually, I felt like I had been traversing a craggy wasteland, always walking forward in the direction of the sun (Son), waiting for this storm of torrential rains and floods to come, but I was always waiting, always walking, and there was never a drop of rain in sight nor a cloud in the sky.

I began to grow used to the desert, both the spiritual and the creative. Oddly enough, my inner spirit man never really felt like it was in a drought, just thirsty, content, but never satisfied. No matter how much I fought to be satisfied.

As years past in my reality, circumstances not changing, my hope for a better future, for the flood rains in my creative life and spiritual life to come, became like an old plane ticket in my hand. It had no expiration date, but neither did it have a date of departure, and so I ceased looking for one.

I was a desert wanderer. This was my reality. But on my 31st birthday, waking up from that hope-reviving dream, remembering other dreams that partnered with it, I began to smell the scent of rain in the air again. A change was coming and it was right on the horizon. Messiah Yeshua Jesus even led me to a verse in the Scriptures to solidify this newly revived hope and expectation.

Isaiah 43:19 “See, I am doing what is new, let it now spring forth. Do you not know it? I am even making a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”

Now, for several years I had been having a connected series of dreams about living in a trash bag tent in the desert amongst many others who were fearful of a coming flood.  So when I read this verse, and the images of those old dreams of my desert lands being flooded out with enough water to fill the oceans,  I knew it was a Word of life for me from Him.

This, however, is where faith gets tricky. People of faith LOVE a word about CHANGE and BREAKTHROUGH, but they never take into consideration what CHANGE and BREAKTHROUGH really mean.

Simple analogy, think of how a child who has come to the end of his or her stay within the womb feels when they are are BREAKING THROUGH to their new place. It is not a comfortable transition.  The very fluid they had been thriving on for nine months is squeezed out of them as they pass through from one existence to the other.

Isaiah 43:19 is awesome, but there is a verse that comes before it. This verse was the training breakthrough verse from me.

Isaiah 43:18 Do not remember the former, nor consider that of old.”

STEP 1: Confront your past disappointments.

In order for me to move forward out of my desert, I had to forget the things that were behind. I had a lot of disappointments and false starts,  a lot of heartaches, a lot of wounds, and all of those things not only blocked my creativity but stifled me spiritually and emotionally.

Art doesn’t thrive in a box. Creativity is organic and grows how it grows.

I was in agreement with ‘forgetting’ all of those things. I had buried them for a reason, but I had not healed from them. I was still carrying them with me, and the load was rotting lot gangrene and affecting every creative part of me.

I began to think I was a failure because I could not make myself forget these things that Messiah Yeshua-Jesus had let out of the bag. I cried. I didn’t understand until He gently and lovingly told me a simple truth.

In order to forget what is behind, you have to confront it, heal from it, so that it never has power over you again.

You know what it is like when a clogged pipe has been treated and all that grime comes out before the clear water flows? That is what had been taking place with me ever since. I began to allow my pains to be redeemed, and I am talking about those old pains, the-school-bully-that-scared-you-when-you-were-nine kind of pains.

STEP 2: Embrace your unique path and timing.

The pains of not feeling good enough and trying to achieve those superficial plateaus that society has put in place, but failing every time. And why was I failing? Because these things are not part of His design or rather they were not part of His design for my life back then. Striving for those things (marriage, children, nest, 9 to 5 job … not really on the 9 to 5) at the WRONG time was creative suicide.

Because of my wounds, the ones that were sneaking up on me even though I had pressed them down, I had gone on a rampage to control everything in my life that I could. My art was controlled. There could be no mistakes in it, which meant I hardly ever created anything. My writing had to be flawless. And because it wasn’t, because I couldn’t really control it, I began to grow duller.

STEP 3: Divorce yourself from perfectionism.

Art doesn’t thrive in a box. Creativity is organic and grows how it grows. I was trying to control all of these things because I could not control the pain that I refused to confront. But now I know better. I was blessed with the chance to journey far way from home, away from the noise and get a glimpse of the creative woman I once was and am in the process of becoming.

I leave you to take another listen to the song that makes my heart dance. It’s one of my new anthems. It comes from the “When I’m with You.” Album by JJ Heller. The song is called “Control.” I have let go of the control now. I have ceased to clip my own wings out of fear and the need to control something, anything, just to feel secure. I gave Yeshua Jesus permission to heal my hidden hurts and to draw out the creativity that had been backed up.

BONUS: LET GO OF THE NEED TO CONTROL!

I gave up control and I am getting to know me again and you don’t need control for that. It’s actually best to let it go.

COMMUNITY QUESTIONS:

  • What steps have you taken to walk into your creative dreams?
  • What were some things that were holding you back?
  • What advice would you share with others who have struggled to take hold of or regain their footing in conquering their dreams and goals?

Please share your wisdom and advice in the comments below.

~Dream. Imagine. Believe. Do. CONQUER!

How to Achieve Your Dream: Pt 3 Team Up! #MotivationMonday #SeizetheDream #Creative

Published on by Candice Coates4 Comments

Teamwork makes the dream work.” ~John C. Maxwell

Everything God created was created to be most fruitful when it is connected with another. When a man takes a wife, children are born. When a bee meets a flower, more flowers, bees, and honey are born. When seed meets soil and is saturated by rain, new life is produced.

When we, dreamers and visionaries becoming creators, have taken the steps to …

1. Believe: Believe that we can achieve the dream that is inside of us. (See Believe You Can).

2. Simplify: Take your processes one step at a time without over-complicating each move you make. (See Keep it Simple).

… we are on the path to productively multiplying our success which is found in our ability to properly align ourselves to achieve our dreams, by teaming up with others.

3. Team up. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 explains this perfectly, stating that there is a greater reward for your labor when you are partnered up with another person or persons.

Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls,
For he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken. ~Ecclesiasites 4:9-12

It is wise to have a support group, especially mentors; a system of like-minded visionaries who have been where you are headed or are walking the path along side you on your way to where you are going.

Having a ‘team’ means there is always someone to encourage you when you fall, keep you warm when the world is cold and harsh, give you guidance when you feel stuck, or to simply tell you the best path to take to avoid hidden pitfalls.

Your team can give you the outer perspective that you will lack at times. They will have the ability to give you the right amount of hard truth married with the perfect amount of grace which is exactly what we all need to get from dream to reality.

When we, people of faith, invite Yeshua Jesus, the giver of these dreams and visions, to captain the journey along with our team our efforts are blessedly not easily thwarted.

Whenever you decided to take hold of your dream, there is going to be opposition. We need someone or several someones to help us stay the course, shower us with encouragement and cheer us on when we feel as if we can go no further.

We need that person that anoints us with goodness when we need it most. Get yourself a great team, keep things simple, and never cease to believe you can!

Seize your dream. You are already halfway there!

~Dream. Imagine. Believe. Do. CONQUER! 

How to Achieve Your Dream Part 1: Believe You Can #MotivationMonday #SeizetheDream #Creative

Published on by Candice Coates11 Comments

Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” ~Theodre Roosevelt

One of the most glorious things about life is that even though it can be considered a canvas, it certainly is not a ‘paint by numbers.’ Life is not a one-size-fits-all even if certain ideas and concepts may mirror that of another’s. There still, and always, remains the glory of uniqueness in each person’s life and creation.

I believe that Yeshua Jesus has a plan for each of us, a perfect design that He wants us to be co-workers with Him upon. He gives us dreams for a reason. Some dreams we take hold of and bring to manifestation, while others, sadly we leave to float away like feathers in the wind.

Many times, the dreams that get away from us are the dreams that we can’t seem to muster the faith for or we allow our faith to be choked away.

But how do we cease to do this?

We have to make a connection with faith and hold on to it. The Lord tells us that all we need is faith the size of a mustard seed and nothing will be impossible for us (Matthews 17:20) The glory of such a small seed is that it becomes very large when placed in the right soil and environment.

The blessing for us is that anything that we put in the hand of the Master has the potential to be greatly multiplied beyond what we can even hope or imagine! (Matthew 14:13-21,  Ephesians 3:14-21)

We have to see more opportunities than obstacles.  We must no longer minimize the potential of the seed of the dreams we have and stop polluting the soil of opportunity with weeds of fear and doubt.

In order to do this, we need to remind ourselves of the great love that Yeshua Jesus has for us. He is the one who has given us the dream and He loves us. Fear, however, is the opponent of love (I John 4:18), and not only are you greatly loved but you have not been given the spirit of fear, but love, power, and a sound mind! (2 Timothy 1:7)

We also have to use our creative imagination with faith-filled courage and not fear-filled conjecture. We must focus on the potential truth of imaginative vision instead of the frailty of tangible sight.

The book of Proverbs tells us that as a man thinks in his heart so he is (Proverbs 23:7). These thoughts which soon become reality began as a seed of imagination. They can either be based out of fear as well as incomplete information or fuelled by faith.

To be ruled by conjecture is similar to looking into a pool and concluding that the waters are not deep because they ‘look’ to be shallow, only to find out you were wrong once your head is under water.

Operating in the truth of imaginitive vision is to step out in faith and we are encouraged in the Word that Faith is the substance of things not seen and the evidence of things hoped for (Hebrews 11:1). Evidence is not conjecture. Evidence is truth!

Faith it out!

The beauty in this is that the greatest push for us to accomplish those dreams that make our hearts flutter is to first believe. Believing, making the commitment to take the step, is the greatest part of the journey.

It is the first step toward your dream, and believing enough to step out means you are already halfway there!

*Join me next week for Part 2 of this motivating series.

~Dream. Imagine. Believe. Do. CONQUER!

The Name She Used: Monday’s Muse Results for May 1st 2017 #AmWriting #Monday’sMuse #WritingPrompt

Published on by Candice CoatesLeave a comment

They’d been walking for three hours. The car had run out of gas that far back. She’d stayed with him, but she still hadn’t told him her name. 

Interestingly enough, he didn’t feel like he needed to know her name, not at that moment. She’d given him peace the very moment she got in the car with him, her presence washing over his atmosphere with a something akin to light.

He laughed on the inside. He knew his thoughts were foolish especially since he was thinking them about a complete stranger one who avoided the mention of her name even though she kept speaking one to him over and over again, Jesus.

At first hearing that name jolted him with the same force as the headlights that had come head-on in his direction, cutting through the fog like a hateful knife. He’d managed to swerve away from impact, his tires eating through the grass that lay just off the road.

Then he saw her, really, it was her coat that coat his attention, peaking out like a beacon just a few yards ahead of him. He wasn’t one to usually pick up a stranger. He left that job to Uber, but something about her seemed . . . safe, comforting after his heart tried to launch itself through the top of his head.

At first, she was silent. She’d said her thank you’s and then smiled warmly. As soon as they’d made it a little less than a mile up the road she started talking. She’d questioned him really, asked where he was from, where he was going, why he was alone.

None of it was her business. The questions actually caused familiar flames to lick up the walls of his belly. He didn’t want to think about where he was from. He had no intention of ever going back there. There was nothing left for him after Danielle filed for divorce. The irony was she was the guilty one. And yes he was livid, more so, he was bleeding inside, cut off at the knees by her confession but he still wanted to try and work things out.

Twenty years was nothing to just toss away, not without trying. They married straight out of highschool. Their roots were too deep to just yank up. Something had to be salvageable. Still, she would accept his forgiveness. That hurt him even worse. There he was giving her his heart again even after she’d torn it out and she refused to take it for guilt. It didn’t make sense to him.

Where was he going, the passenger had asked. He wanted to ask her the same question but couldn’t for the simple fact that he was stunned by his own lack of an answer. He had no idea where he was going. He was just driving, driving away from the hurt and the darkness.

Why he was alone seemed obvious, at least to him. He jokingly told her that he only had one seat open and clearly it was meant for her. That was when she started talking about Jesus, she even said he had made a way for her to get a ride, that they were meant to meet.

He politely smiled at each mention of the name Jesus and her gentle telling of his love and grace. He’d always found it too hard for him to wrap his mind around, that the God of all Creation would be so loving and forgiving that even when man had wronged him, created a debt that needed to be paid but could not pay himself, that this same God would become man to pay that very debt because he loved his creation so and he just wanted the pleasure of being loved back.

If all that were true, then he was guilty of that debt. He’d surely messed up enough in his life, he should have died for his own sins. How could he look God in the face and just accept such a sacrifice on his behalf when he didn’t deserve it? The thought made his chest ache, it always did.

After walking with the stranger for three hours he finally stopped and asked her, dropping all of his politeness, spurred on by the sudden parallel that he was seeing in his own unwillingness to accept Jesus and Danielle’s unwillingness to accept him.

“It’s not fair,” he tried to shout but his voice came out with a cracking whisper similar to that of a boy approaching manhood.

“No, but that is why it is love. That is why it is grace.”

She spoke to him some more about grace, the light began to fade and with it went his former denials. He loved Danielle, maybe not like Christ loved him but he wanted to try.

“Will you let him teach you?” the young woman asked, her expression hopeful.

Trembling from the cold or the anticipation of knowing for himself, standing there, in the darkening woods, with fog growing heavier, tears streaming his face, and his broken heart bleeding, he finally said yes.

In an instant, he felt more pain, sharper and deeper than he ever had before. Panic gripped him until he struggled to breath. He fell to his knees. Her arms lead him downward until he was laying on his back, her breath whispering words of peace to him.

“It will be alright,” she said. “You are going to be just fine. Trust Him.”

“Jesus, help me,” he heard the words slipping from his lips even as the noise of the sirens made his ears burn.

-“We’ve got a pulse! He’s back with us and he’s speaking! Sir? Sir? My name is Jennifer and this is officer Healy. You’ve been in a head-on collision. But you are going to be just fine sir, just fine.”

THE BEGINNING

*Wow, so this went in a direction I had not anticipated but that is the fun of creative writing prompts. If you would like to see the original prompt with links to the image and rules to participate see, Monday’s Muse Writing Prompt May 1st, 2017. 

~Dream. Imagine. Believe. Do. CONQUER!

Plan Big!: A Word of Creative Encouragement #MotivationMonday

Published on by Candice Coates6 Comments

When God is your partner, make your plans big!” ~ D.L Moody

Plan BIG!

You’d think that that exhortation would make every person who heard it celebrate with a motivated fire for action when in reality it makes a lot of people shrink back in fear and hide under the heavy blankets of safety and mediocrity.

Dreaming is not so much of an issue for most of us. But dreaming big . . . well, that has the power to not only knock the wind out of many of our sails but sink our boats completely.

Like me, I suppose you are wondering why that is. If we are honest with ourselves we would have to admit that insecurity and the scrutiny of others is what holds us back. The old ‘what will people think?’ phrase acts as the perfect glitch in our plans of action.

The very thought of failing in front of others, especially those who’ve minimalized our former dreams with the constant song of ‘you can’t,’ strikes us immobile. Them witnessing our former failed attempts doesn’t help either.

But is any of that really a reason to shrink our globally-sized visions down to something that only fills a shoebox? Are our past ‘failures’ really messages that we are not able to achieve the impossible?

I dare say NO!

If nothing else our past ‘failures’ are signs that we are indeed able to succeed? Why? Because even when we aimed for the moon and didn’t even leave the atmosphere, we still have the gumption to load up for another shot.

We are indeed meant to plan big, and along with that, we must rest in faith that every seeming malfunction has a glorious function for our good. We learn from every step we take. We are strengthened by every closed door. We can actually become better with ever affront against our determination.

Isaiah 54:2-4 says, “Enlarge the place of your tent, And let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; Do not spare; Lengthen your cords, And strengthen your stakes. For you shall expand to the right and to the left, And your descendants will inherit the nations, And make the desolate cities inhabited. “Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; Neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame; For you will forget the shame of your youth, And will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore.”

Dreaming BIG is a gift, a costly gift. It means we will have seasons and moments when we look foolish. It will require us to cast out our nets just one more time in faith even though we’ve been fishing all night and caught nothing. (Luke 5:3-7) But when Yeshua Jesus is directing our casting even when the progress looks minimal the process is optimal and so is the final outcome if we stick with it.

What we must realize is that the God of all Creation has big dreams and plans for each of us. When we trust Him as our Father we are then positioned by faith to prosper. (Jeremiah 29:11)  His thoughts for us are all GOOD and PRECIOUS  and they outnumber the stars and the sand (Psalm 139:17-18).

But part of seeing these dreams come to pass rest in our willingness to dream big, plan even bigger and allow the Giver of Dreams Himself to guide us on the journey. (John 15:5) “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

There is nothing that is too big for Yeshua Jesus to do and when He is our partner there is NOTHING we cannot do! (Philippians 4:13)  But it requires us to believe in and on Him, and take great leaps of faith.

But then, that’s all it takes.

So dream, plan and do it BIG! He’s got your back.

~Dream. Imagine. Believe. Do. CONQUER!

*Revised from June 2016

A Reason to Rejoice: A Word of Faith

Published on by Candice CoatesLeave a comment

rejoice-alwaysI’m sure that whether you are a Christian or not, you have heard that the shortest verse in the bible is John 11:35,”Jesus wept.” While this is true on one hand, there is a verse that rivals it for the two-word title and that is a passage found in I Thessalonians 5:16.

“Rejoice always.” ~I Thessalonians 5:16

While the two verses seem to have a world between then in meaning, I want to encourage you of how they both give us a reason to rejoice and empower us to do so in the Lord God Yeshua Jesus.

In John 11, we find Yeshua Jesus at the tomb of His beloved friend, Lazarus who has passed away, and Yeshua Jesus, fully understanding the grief of those around Him wept along with them. He being, fully God, and fully Man took on the role of complete friend and shared in the sufferings of those around Him even though He knew what He was capable of doing as the God of all creation.

Even with His infinite power, He allowed Himself to weep. Sometimes when we face hardships in life, we often feel guilty for being overcome by emotions. I don’t know about you, but there have been many occasions where I’ve had to remind myself that crying because of a situation does not mean I don’t have faith concerning the situation.

Just as my Savior wept in His sovereignty, you and I have the blessing of weeping in our salvation and hope.

When we face our ‘Lazarus’ situations, moments where life seems completely unfair and that which we were believing God for seems to have died, we may find it difficult to rejoice in anything at all. You may even be thinking that the Lord’s prompting for us to rejoice is somewhat unfair.

But again, just as Yeshua Jesus gives us peace of mind when we weep He also gives us the reason to rejoice.

These two verses, similar in their length, bless us with some key truths about the character of the God we serve and hope in:

  1. John 11:35 assures us that Yeshua Jesus understands our sufferings even as we share in His.
  2. I Thessalonians 5:16 reminds us that there is always a reason for hope.

The same way that Yeshua Jesus knew what He could do at Lazarus’ tomb, He is able and willing to do at the ‘tombs’ in our lives. In this we can rejoice! The call to rejoice is a call to take firm hold of our faith.

WE CAN REJOICE BECAUSE:

  • We are Rejoicing in Him: Philippians 4:4 “ Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.” We rejoice in Who He is. We rejoice that He is soveriegn over every situation in our lives.
  • We are rejoicing in Hope: Romans 12:12 “ rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer…”
  • We know our Hope does not dissappoint: Romans 5:5 “ Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
  • We know Christ in us IS our HOPE: Colossians 1:27 “To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
  • Becuase He is in us we are overcomers: 1 John 4:4 “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
  • We overcome because Christ in us has overcome the world and its troubles: John 14:27-29; 16:33 “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I. “And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe… …These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
  • He has counted us WORTHY to share in His sufferings and be persecuted on His behalf: I Peter 4:13″but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.” Acts 5:40-42 “And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.  So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.  And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.”

SO WHY DO WE REJOICE ALWAYS?

We rejoice because even though our lives may face sufferings and tribulations we know that in Him we have hope and our hope does not dissappoint, that He has counted us WORTHY to carry a cross to the glory and honor of His Name! He, Christ in us has blessed us to overcome every situation and to bring us out gloriously because He loves and cares for us.

So let us not be troubled but truly rest and rejoice in the peace He has given us, the same peace He gave us right before He was betrayed and led to the cross in our place!

No matter what you are facing, though you may feel the need to weep, do so, but always rejoice. He is with you and you will overcome! And HE IS ALWAYS A REASON TO REJOICE!

ADDITIONAL ENCOURAGMENT:

~Poiema, Poetry in Motion

The Change in the Waiting: The Purpose in the Process

Published on by Candice CoatesLeave a comment

changes

God often requires us to change while we are waiting.” ~Wendy Pope, Wait and See, 2016, p.114  

Wait. It is a word that makes the average person cringe especially in the face of something your soul longs for. I don’t care how you spell it, weight, wait, the word just hurts. But more so than wait or its twin sister weight, change can be a doozy as well.

change-and-waitChange is the process that takes place in the cocoon of waiting. Change is what is required within the space of promise to manifestation. Some of us hear that we need to change and we think, ‘Hey, I’m a pretty good person. Why do I need to change?’

The reality is, that our level of ‘goodness’ (which only comes from Christ living in us anyway) has nothing to do with why we must change. A little girl must become a woman before she can bear a child and properly raise it. A boy must become a man before he can become a strong and sound husband, provider and father.

The beauty is that the promise given unto us, the dream of becoming is born from the potential that is already alive in us. It just needs to be cultivated and that takes time. That requires the change born out of the wait.

You decide you want to be a doctor. So you go to school for several long years and change while you wait for your graduation, the proof that you are ready to practice medicine. You have dreams of being a pilot, so you change by way of learning how to fly.

Wait. Process. Change. Promise!

The simplest example of this is found in the life of the caterpillar. The caterpillar is born with the potential and the promise of flight, but he cannot take to the skies unless he changes into a butterfly first. He must wait so that he can change.

In order for him to do this, he must yield to the process of change, and wait so that he can take hold of the promise.

3 Things Required in order to Change in our Waiting

  1. Boundaries: (Psalm 16:6) “My boundary lines fall in pleasant places
    —surely my heritage is beautiful.“~TLV. When God sets our course, He does so with a path in mind and this path is designed to get us to His and our desired location in Him and in our place within the Kingdom. But, we can only reach this place of inheritance when we submit to the ‘boundary lines’ set before us. Just like the caterpillar must yield to the confines of a cocoon, so too must we yield the boundaries set by our loving Father during our time of wait if we expect to change for the promise.
  2. Pressure: (II Corinthians 4:7-16, I Peter 4:12-13) The cocooned habitat of the caterpillar is comfortable for only a while. Soon as wings and other appendages begin to form, the boundaries become tighter and the pressure is put on. The same is true for us and praise the Lord God Yeshua Jesus for it! When certain situations become too comfortable our desire to leave them begins to decrease. That dream of flying starts to pale in the comfort of being securely suspended. But when the pressure is on, when the changes that have taken place in us and in our friend the caterpillar become evident, the desire for the promise increases. The blessing of the pressure can also be seen in the transformation of dusty coal into diamonds. No pressure, no change. The right amount of pressure for the proper amount of time and we end up with bling instead of coal!
  3. Struggle/Resistance: (Romans 5:1-5) Becoming a butterfly is a great and glorious result of change, but wings and legs unused and untried are useless. They are not strong enough to take to the promised sky. In order for the butterfly to survive in its new level of existence and promise it must have proven the strenght of its wings and legs. It is in teh struggle to be released from its cocoon that his legs adn wings develop the needed strenght for walking and flight.

As children of God, destined for promised lands and beautiful inheritances, we must do more than ‘look the part’ for our new positions within the Kingdom.

Our faith and trust in the Lord God Yeshua Jesus must be developed inorder for us to survive the attacks and temptations that will come our way even before we cross the threshold into our promised lands.

We have to encourage ourselves in the truth that there is treasure in our transitions of change. Their is purpose in our process of waiting. Our waiting is never wasted if we do it with Christ at the center and our faith yielded to His way. I Peter 5:6-7 says,

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.~NKJV

Our Heavenly Father knows that the waiting can get rough at times, but He also knows that it is worth it. Even He waited for the right time to come in the form of a baby, born of a virgin to redeem a sin stained world to eternal life and everlasting relationship with Him (Galatians 4:4-5, Romans 5:6).

Had King David not waited in the pastures where no one saw him fighting against lions and bears, living under the likely mocking and christcism of his seven older brothers, while developing his devotion to God the Father, his capacity to lead and care for a multitude, and his skill as a marksman, he would have never had the faith to defeat Goliath or the trust in God’s faithfulness to keep him while he overcame the harrassment and threat of death that came from King Saul during the many years that followed.

All of these things, the boundaries, the pressure, the struggles, were the very things that caused King David to change from shephard of sheep to the whole of Israel. It was in the process that his ‘wings’ developed the tried and trusted faith and ability to fly!

You and I are given the same opprotunity in our faith walk, to change in our wait to be ready for the promise. I pray that if you haven’t already, you would humble yourself under the loving hand of the Father, allow Him to guide you in your change and trust that at the right time your wings will have the strength to fly into your promise!

SCRIPTURES OF ENCOURAGEMENT:

~Poiema, Poetry in Motion

Dressed for the Appointment: Hope for the Promises to Come

Published on by Candice CoatesLeave a comment

Urgent Message of Hope from December 26, 2012, ON TIME FOR December 2016: 

Four years ago I was led to write a short message reminding many of my friends on Facebook to keep holding on to the Word of Faith and promise that Yeshua Jesus had given unto them. Now, four years and two days later, I am urged to do it again.

The Lord laid this question upon my heart that only you can answer for yourself, really, and here it is. “Are you dressed and are you ready for the open door?”

It is easy to be given a dream and a prophetic vision for your future/destiny/purpose, but it is a whole other thing to not only hold on to it but to be prepared for it at all times. With many of the trails that we face, especially within the last year, it is easy to lose hope in the dream, allowing it to be transformed into the elusive ‘carrot on a stick’ dangling just out of your reach.

“Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him quickly out of the dungeon; and he shaved, changed his clothing, and came to Pharaoh.”~ Genesis 41:14

The enemy has a way of trying to convince us that that that is what the promises of Yeshua Jesus are, elusive and out of reach. The good thing is that we know satan IS A LIAR! (John 8:44) As we know that our Heavenly Father’s Word never returns to Him void (Isaiah 55:8-13) ( And our Savior is the Living Word that did not return unto Him void…think on that a bit more 😉 ) we also know that the truth is not found within the enemy (John 8:44). If the Lord said He is going to do somehting in your life, HE IS GOING TO DO IT!

He (Jospeh) did not allow the circumstances that had tried him to keep him in the garments and appearance of a slave or prisoner but he presented himself as a free man to the very one who had the power to promote him. Joseph dressed for the open door, one he had been waiting on.

So again I ask you are you dressed and ready for your open door? Consider Joseph. Joseph was given many prophetic dreams about his destiny and purpose. He, like all of us called by His Name, was destined to reign (Romans 5:15-17). Our Heavenly Father embedded these truths about his future deep within his being so that Joseph would know what he was meant to do and who he was called to be.

Even with these truths and promises deep within him, Joseph still endured hardships and betrayals, letdowns and heartbreaks that looked and were completely contrary to the promise and vision, but Joseph did not relent on what God had shown him. Instead, he held on to the dream. For thirteen years Joseph trusted in God in the face of more storms and more roads that seemed to lead further away from the promise, but with each step down he kept looking up, waiting for his open door.

In Genesis 41:14 we read that when Pharaoh suddenly calls for Joseph, Joseph immediately shaved and changed his garments in order to go before Pharaoh. He did not allow the circumstances that had tried him to keep him in the garments and appearance of a slave or prisoner but he presented himself as a free man to the very one who had the power to promote him. Joseph dressed for the open door, one he had been waiting on (Genesis 40).

Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry. ~Habakkuk 2:2-3

All along Jospeh believed that he was meant for greater so he dressed for greater. He held on to the Hope that ‘This might be the day!’ and it was! His day did come. He did not allow thirteen years of imprisonment to convert him in any way to a prisoner.

But not only did Jospeh hold on but so did many others like Father Abraham and Sarah who waited over twenty years of their promised miracle son, Isaac (Hebrews 11).

Yet, here is something else we need to consider and that is how we are waiting. Are we really waiting on the promise dressed with faith or are we like the fruitless fig tree giving the appearance of faith but empty of the real thing similar to the five foolish virgins who held lamps they didn’t bother trimming and with very little oil, or are we truly ready and waiting with faith and hope? (Matthew 21:18-22*, Matthew 25:1-13)

So I ask again are you dressed for your open door or are you keeping on the clothing of a prisoner and a slave with no intention of changing them because of lost hope? I pray the Holy Spirit leads you in all you do and for whatever He has in store for you I pray you are getting dressed and ready because the open door is indeed coming! Be ready.

*If you are wondering about the fig tree, understand that fig trees have what is a preseason fruit, where they bear a first run of figs and then a second yeilding. When Yeshua Jesus approached the fig tree that He later cursed, it was during the preseason for fruit. The tree had the appearance of doing what it was supposed to be doing but was empty of fruit!

~Poiema, Poetry in Motion

Encouraged in the Wait: Trusting in God in the Trial

Published on by Candice CoatesLeave a comment

encouraged-in-the-wait

Isaiah 40:29-31 “He [God] gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.”

This passage from Isaiah is one that I’ve quoted many of times in my walk with the Lord Yeshua Jesus. Often times I’ve felt it come up from within my soul during times of, you’ve guessed it, waiting!

And although this scripture does indeed tell us, like many others found in the Bible, that the Lord is faithful to those who wait, the power of waiting in the circumstances that the Prophet Isaiah is writing on is what really moved my heart recently and I am certain it will do the same for yours.

When the Lord spoke to Isaiah, giving him these verses it was in response to what was going on in the hearts of the children of Israel. They, like we get many of times, were in great distress and felt abandoned by God in the midst of their trials. Justice was due them and justice was not on the horizon.

As He deemed us worth dying for, we can trust that He is worth waiting for.

Have you been there? I know I have. We’ve walked in the best of our faith and integrity and still it seems like we are the ones to finish last. It seems like our prayers and pleas are going unanswered and seemingly ignored, and like the Children of Israel, we feel discouraged and abandoned, and dare I say it, forgotten.

But here is what our Faithful Father said to Israel and to us:

Isaiah 40:27-28 “Why do you say, O Jacob, And speak, O Israel:“My way is hidden from the Lord, And my just claim [justice] is passed over by my God”? Have you not known?
Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary.His understanding is unsearchable.

You see, these are the verse that precedes Isaiah 40:29-31. It is in the waiting and trusting in the faithfulness of Yeshua Jesus especially in the face of injustice that we are renewed, that we are strengthened that we are no longer weary.

Psalm 31:5, 7-8 “Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth…I will be glad and rejoice in Your lovingkindness, for You saw my affliction. You knew the troubles of my soul. You did not hand me over to the enemy.
You set my feet in a wide-open place.

The glorious hope that fills my heart when I meditate on these verses, while I wait on the Lord, is in the truth that God is faithful ESPECIALLY when it seems like all the world is against me and nothing is working for my good. I am reminded that He is indeed our ever present help (Psalm 46:1). In Him we are never abandoned nor are we forgotten.

Isaiah 63:9 “In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the Angel of His Presence saved them; In His love and in His pity He redeemed them; And He bore them and carried them All the days of old.

He is with us in our afflictions and in His love He has pity on us. He sees what is grieving our souls and He is faithful to give us relief. His Word even assures us that He goes through our trials with us, that in our distresses He too is distressed.

Isaiah 49:13-16 says:

Sing, O heavens! Be joyful, O earth! And break out in singing, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted His people, And will have mercy on His afflicted. But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, And my Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me.

Our Heavenly Father loves us beyond measure so much so that He would never forget us nor forsake us, especially not when we are distressed. Just as a parent is moved by the cries of their child so too is our Heavenly Father moved by ours.

Knowing that He loves us and has proven that through the nails that were driven into His hands let us sing for joy in the midst of our distress and seeming unjust circumstances, trusting that He has got everything under control.

He has assured us that He can never forget us as He has inscribed us to the palms of HIS HANDS and our walls are ever before Him.

Think about that for a minute. Think about the nail prints in His hands that He bore for us even before we knew Him. Being assured that He loves us that much, we can sing in our trials because He will faithfully come through. As He deemed us worth dying for, we can trust that He is worth waiting for.

Be encouraged that He is near you, He hears you, and He is for you! Meet Him in the secret place in the midst of your trial. Meet Him with songs of praise as you wait and are renewed!

MEDITATION AND REFLECTION PASSAGES:

Take a listen to the INTRO of this song by clicking HERE.

~Poeima, Poetry in Motion