All posts tagged: Motivation

The Beauty of Blinders: Taking Sight of Your Own Creativity

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BLINDERS: something that obscures vision: something that prevents clear vision or understanding eye covers for horse: a pair of flaps attached to a horse’s bridle, one beside each eye, to keep the horse looking straight ahead.Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2003. © 1993-2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. In terms of creativity, the first definition of the word for ‘blinders’ is very negative. Being creative after all is about giving vision and making the obscure more understandable. But as creative people, there are times where blinders are a necessary tool that we should employ within our journeys, and actually, blinders become a great blessing when we employ them in our faith journeys as well. “True creativity is not about competition it is about the newness of authenticity. Authentic creativity speaks not only for the artist, but to the artist as well as the audience, and comes from a place within.” Blinders that cover our eyes from distractions, things that keep us from our vision, and looking ahead, staying on the path, are very beautiful and worthwhile. …

The Requirement of Obedience: The Key to Stepping into Manifest Promises

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“God doesn’t need our help, but He does require our obedience.” ~CANDICE COATES We often think that when the Lord says something, instructs us in a task, that the work of bringing that which He has spoken to pass rest upon our oh-too-small shoulders. When in reality the Lord only requires two things from us; our ‘yes’ and our obedience. Sometimes our work of obedience does require big moves and actions and many times, dare I say most times, it requires us being still and seeing the salvation of the Lord (EXODUS 14:13-14). When we take a journey through the second book of Chronicles, we find King Jehoshaphat. He is burdened on every side and weighed down by the impending assault of the enemy. There were many things that the king could have done. He could have rallied his troops. He could have called on allies. But what he did instead, was to call upon the King of Kings and seek His instructions for his next move. And in seeking the Lord in faith, the …

Get Ready to Take Your Mountain: A Fresh Look at the Series ‘Be Squared’

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SPECIAL NOTE: It is my great joy and delight to be reintroducing this series especially during this season. For a few months now the Lord has been bringing ‘Be Squared‘ to heart and mind and it is recently that He instructed me to share it again. I feel in my spirit that this is truly a right-now word for the Body of Christ. Things truly are not what they seem no matter what world circumstances say. The Lord is releasing greatness, power, strength, and long awaited manifestations of inheritances and promises. With that said, here is the introductio to this series. My prayer is that you will feel the gifts in your spirit being stirred and hear with fresh revelation and confident trust the promises that the Lord has been preparing you for. The time is now! Be Squared! ~Candice Coates Squared. In terms of algebra, every pre-teen’s favorite subject, to be squared is to be raised to a higher power. A numeral goes from its singular numeric ability and is suddenly given a boost …

Words…Use Them Wisely

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Life is more than words, but words do make up our lives. Have you ever considered how the simplest of words can change a person’s attitude either for the good or bad? Even the words spoken without verbalization have such great power. Consider a person who feels utterly alone, ignored and unseen. Let a stranger smile at them, genuinely smile at them, and that non-verbal interaction, those ‘words’ spelled out without sound, can push away the dark clouds in the recipient’s day. “Life is more than words, but words do make up our lives.”   God created the whole of creation with just His Words (Genesis 1). He spoke and it came to be. Our Lord Jesus is the Word made flesh (John 1). He too spoke and things happened. He spoke to the fig tree and it died (Mark 11:12-25). He spoke to Lazarus and he was resurrected from the dead (John 11: 38-44). Being a person of faith I am compelled not to take language and words lightly even though I often stumble, …

Stumbling Blocks to Stepping Stones: The Beauty from Broken Roads

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“But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. 24 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. 25 He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.” ~JOHN 12:23-26 Our lives and the path we take when directed by Christ are always for a purpose. What we at times see as broken moments marred by death and loss, are oftentimes climax moments that Christ calls seed and harvest. When our Savior came to His time to be brutally beaten and then die on the cross for the world, He knew that out of His agony and death would come a harvest of a great …

Staying in Shalom by Briana Lassiter

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As you read this, may the shalom of God cover you, keep you and enlighten you as you move from glory to glory, from grace to grace. ~Briana Lassiter I remember the first time the Lord told me that Shalom was not a location I would arrive at or something to achieve, it was a state of being. As it usually happens when the Lord tells me something new like this, I didn’t get it. When Jesus teaches me something, I like to know, “How does this practically affect my life, Lord?” Over the next few months, He began to show me that Shalom begins with a series of choices. It is almost an equation, x + y =? When x happens to y (you) what is the result? I believe every situation we encounter is a mathematical equation. If you don’t understand the process of solving the equation, it doesn’t matter what you come up with, you’re not going to get the right answer. However, if you know the process to solve the equation, …

He is Known in Praise: Lifting Up the Name of Jesus

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“In Judah God is known; His name is great in Israel. 2 In Salem also is His tabernacle, And His dwelling place in Zion. 3 There He broke the arrows of the bow, The shield and sword of battle. Selah” ~PSALM 76:1-3 When I read Psalm 76:1-3 recently, the Lord immediately led me to look up what He was saying via the translations of each of the places mentioned in verses. What I discovered by doing the word study was that our God is revealed and known in praise! We already know that He makes our praise His dwelling place (PS. 22:3), and thusly in His presence is fullness of joy and pleasures evermore (PS. 16:11). All of this is obviously beautiful, but it only comes as a direct response of closeness and closeness comes by communication, communication is a fruit of praise. KNOWING HIM IN PRAISE Here is the breakdown of the verses using the meanings of each location’s name and outlining the significance of each. v.1a In Judah God is known: God has …

Declaring All the Reasons You Can

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It is easy and practically the given norm of humanity to find all the reasons why we ‘can’t’ and shouldn’t do a thing that has been burning in our hearts to do. We can come up with the typical lists of why’s that range from financial restrictions, age, gender, and the all too famous stumbling block, time. We see and feel the burn for more, given to us by Christ Himself, swirling within us, and yet, like Moses we begin to tell the God of Creation who has called us to ‘speak’ that our mouths don’t work, as if when He called us and put that fiery seed to go forth in us, He didn’t know the so-called odds against us. In fact, it is because of those very odds that the Lord has called us to go forth and to do things that are seemingly impossible, things that take us out of our comfort zones, things that the word and statistics say we are disqualified to even pursue. “But God chose the foolish things …

A Reason to Rejoice

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“Rejoice always.” ~I Thessalonians 5:16 I‘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”. 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 Christ Jesus. In John 11, we find Christ Jesus at the tomb of His beloved friend, Lazarus who has passed away, and 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 …

Think on These Things: The Art of A Focused Mind

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“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” ~PHILIPPIANS 4:8 To think on things that are ‘good’ in the face of those things that seem to weigh our minds down seems like a call to ignore reality. If not this, many of us struggle to figure out what exactly to think on, defaulting to just, “Jesus is Good.” Now, there is nothing wrong with that thought, because it is absolutely the truth, and we oftentimes, especially in the midst of trials, need to remind ourselves, but I believe that there is a deeper meaning to it all, both the good things and Christ being the Best Thing! THINK ON THE WORD AND PROMISES In the face of hardship and tragedy, we are to think on the Word and Promises of God that He has already spoken over our circumstances. If you …