Day 20 – Half Way!

May 20th, 2016   •   no comments   

You areGood morning,

We have reached the halfway point in our journey, collectively and individually. Wherever you are, you are growing!

Want to know a secret? Appreciate the moment and give it everything you have. Remind yourself today at the halfway mark that you have all the time, love and resources through Christ that strengthens you. Blessings!

Rev. Jacki

Day 19 – I am Grateful

May 19th, 2016   •   no comments   

iaskedHello all,

I am grateful! I want to share my gratitude today with and for the MPC Women and anyone else who is here with us or whom you share with. You all are EXCEPTIONAL WOMEN, COLLECTIVELY AND INDIVIDUALLY.

I read a post written by Jill Will on May 22, 2015, from where she shared my testimony and these words were written: ” Her testimony but really it is OURS for we are a family that prays together…and thank God!”

Yes, your testimony is OUR testimony, your struggles are OUR struggles, your victories are OUR victories. You are never ever alone.

Let me ask you something – as you have been on this journey, did you feel alone; like no one really would understand; have you had thoughts of mass destruction and then felt guilty; are you feeling guilty cause you have not let go of some things, because it hurts too much and has for so long?

You are never alone – you are never alone. If there are any intercessors out here today, I ask that you intercede on behalf of your sisters – and yourself. ( little secret – as an intercessor, I frequently neglect me)

Thank you Lord, as You bless me to spiritually mature and you are so real about my being a work in progress, because you allow me daily to be your clay – I thank you! My heart is glad ( even though tears my flow), when I can’t say a word of praise or gratitude, you reach within with the Holy Spirit to make intercession for me and I am grateful.

My sister – who ever you are, I feel you as I type this. While your heart is troubled, I am standing here for you – I understand! Details are not necessary, just know that God has spoken to me and please don’t let Go. I love you!

I dedicate this song to you today https://youtu.be/4Fx3l2DMDh4

and this one which is reference in the previous song:

https://youtu.be/XtiHeCwcRO0

Rev. Jacki

Day 17 – Look at Forgiveness

May 17th, 2016   •   no comments   

Grievances HideGood morning,

I recently read this: Love holds no grievances. If you are holding grievances, it is impossible to know your Self.

The original thought was to guide you, as the reader through a grievance protocol; then I thought, as we go through this journey to release triggers, today that would be counterproductive. I received confirmation in prayer that I am on the right track. Today, let’s look at forgiveness:

We have been encouraged to forgive since the beginning of time – this not a new concept. It is however a necessary journey for us to know ourselves and take to reach our level of greatness in Christ Jesus – to fully recognize the plans that our Father in Heaven through Jesus Christ has for us.

I used to stand by this statement: ” If you cannot remember the details of the grievance, then you have forgiven” and that is WRONG thinking because that implies that it is okay to still hold on to some vestiges of the grievance and just that little bit can result in hidden triggers that we have.

Here is what we say and I thank and praise God this morning for God’s responses:

I will forgive but I will NOT forget:
And God responds: Daughter : “You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depth of the sea.” Micah 7:19 (NIV)

It has happened many many times:
And God responds: Daughter: “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother ( sister, mother, father, siblings, supervisor, Pastor, friend, person in the street, while I am driving, etc), when he sins against me? Up to seven times? “Jesus answered, ” I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times, ( without conditions).” Matthew 18:21-22 ( NIV and my additions)

I hurt
And God responds: Daughter – “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavily burdened [by religious rituals that provide no peace – like forgiveness maybe?], and I will give you rest [refreshing your souls with salvation].Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me [following Me as My disciple – that ain’t easy either cause rolling neck, people], for I am gentle and humble in heart, and ( not but) YOU WILL FIND REST [renewal, blessed quiet of those voices] FOR YOUR SOULS. For MY yoke is easy [to bear] and MY burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 (AMP with my additions)

And God spoke to me ( I am not sure if this message is just for me – type Amen or Ouch if it touches you) ” when you hold on to those things, unforgiveness, forgiveness with conditions, grievances, you keep MY broken body nailed to the cross. Is that your desire Daughter? Is your pain so great, that I should remain on the Cross; not be resurrected and provide you with a comforter in the Holy Spirit?

And if it is, I will still love you; I will hold you in my arms as you are still my Vessel of Honor. I LOVE you and my LOVE for you holds no grievances.

Rev. Jacki

Day 16 – Another Fresh Start Monday

May 15th, 2016   •   no comments   

Father, It hurtsIt’s Fresh Start Monday!

You are created by God. As God’s magnificent gift, you are love, lovable and loving. Commit to that in your mind. Today erase anything else. The Holy Spirit is the magnet that will wipe away the old tapes.

 

Loved more than you knowI praise You, my Lord, I praise You! It’s praises for You continually being in my mouth that help me to not get it twisted for nothing about Life is ever about me or any one or any thing else-just & only about You! I do so praise You, God! I praise You that You bless us to be continually blessed because of who & how You always are: a praiseworthy God! Praise, You, God; praise You!

 

Rev. Jacki

Day 15 – Day of Pentecost

May 15th, 2016   •   no comments   

Only God's PowerGood morning,

The Day of Pentecost is our 15th day together on our SpiritWoman journey. On the day of Pentecost, in the year A.D. 30, 120 followers of a man named Jesus were gathered together in Jerusalem. Suddenly the Spirit of God filled each one of them and marked them with tongues of fire.

Those 120 disciples were just a handful of rather ordinary men and women, a few fishermen, a couple of housewives, a former tax collector, a few farmers and some servant girls. Yet through these ordinary people God built a Church.

SomedayOn this beautiful Sunday, reflect on the Holy Spirt, your comforter and allow yourself to fall in love and cast all your cares on Jesus; we have obtained the staying power of God to see us through all the ups and downs of life. The Holy Spirit brings his power into our lives in a quiet and unobtrusive way.

Today’s affirming statements:
I have Holy Ghost Power to move from anything that hinders, stops or blocks my relationship with Jesus Christ.

I am free!

God Bless You!

Rev. Jacki

Day 14 – Don’t Let People Upset You

May 13th, 2016   •   no comments   

Don't Let People Upset You

Good morning,

Well, we are 14 days in and I don’t know about you, BUT IT HAPPENED BIG. Let’s just say I was not singing SMILE by Kirk Franklin. Noooo, oh Noooo, more like my very own lyrics to STOMP and no, wasn’t a word of God in my version.

What happened, I did not pause, I did not think. I REACTED internally. A whole range of emotions went on and it was like Gospel music meeting up at a Heavy Metal concert – that is an antitheses. It ain’t happening.

To be honest, when we are in full force trigger drive, we resemble this visual and it is not for the faint at heart:

https://66.media.tumblr.com/…/tumblr_o6gj5aGk4a1v5ijj7o1_54…

Yes, this visual places it in perspective!

As I came back to reality, I had to Give God glory, praise and honor God for mercy. As tore up as I was attempting to be and as foolish as I allowed myself to get – thank God for Jesus sacrifice, I prayed:

Jesus, I thank You for the Wisdom of knowing just how vitally necessary prayer is to our lives. This ceaseless means of connecting & communicating with You is the heartbeat of our salvation & the uplifting of our hearts, minds & souls. Jesus, it was Your pray-er for God’s will to be done & not Your own that led You to the excruciating Cross of Calvary out of obedience to our Father & agape Love for us all. And still, even now, “the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words can’t express.” This means prayers go forth ceaselessly on our behalf for again, God, You knew in the beginning just how much we, Your love-created, yet wayward people, would perpetually stand in need of prayer. So yes, my Lord, I praise You for prayer, because You know I sho’ nuff need it – both to offer and receive it all the time! Hallelujah, Hallelujah!

Yes, I am grateful to say I am a fool for Christ sake from 1 Corinthians 4:10.

Have a wonderful Saturday and Gospel Fit event!

Rev. Jacki

Day 13 – Commitment & Resolution

May 13th, 2016   •   no comments   

Always Everywhere God is

Good morning,

Friday the 13th – Has some one ever made a commitment to you and not kept it? Is that one of the triggers areas that you may have. As a result, of the broken commitment, it sometimes results in anger, distrust, hurt, loss of security, apathy, self-debasement and whatever you fill in the blank with.

and

Have you made resolutions, commitment to take time out for God by committing to a devotional period, bible study, prayer and time has gotten away from that plan and life just happens. Aren’t you glad that God’s has a different response to those commitments that we make and David shares with us this:

But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.” (Psalm 86:15)

God’s reaction is so different from ours as humans being human. Please don’t take this as a means to bring yourself down, but celebrate yourself by forgiving yourself for any and everything. Because God does that for us – Jeremiah 1:5(a): “”Before I formed you in your mother’s womb I chose you. Before you were Don't Give Upborn I set you apart.”

The book of James tells us to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. I will tell you, that just is not an easy task, just like taking our time for a prayer, meditation, devotions and even journaling. Sometimes, we place a time period – for example: ” I am going to designate 1 hour” and if we cannot do the hour, we trigger.

Let me unpack this from a different perspective. Our minds have a way of jamming us up by playing old tapes that contain self-limiting talks and we listen. Today, you be the boss of you! When the mind starts that, tell yourself that it’s not in charge. It can’t run your life like a misbehaved child anymore.

If you are unable to set apart a time for what you perceive is your devotional period, think on this as a beginning and you will find a practice for sitting quietly that works for you. When you are with a friend having coffee, the mind is focused on the friend, listening intently, paying close attention, being there. And that’s what sitting with God is like. So as you go through your day, take 5 or 10 minutes to sit with God. It can seem strange at first, because it seems like no-one/nothing is there. Remember God is always present with us every minute of our being, so the lines of communication are always open for connection.

The time spent will change your perspective and your commitment to desire more and those that others may have made to you.

Rev. Jacki

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 9 – Fresh Start Monday

May 9th, 2016   •   no comments   

Do something for the last time

Dear Sisters,

FRESH START MONDAY – Long Post – this is a “take your mobile device with you type” you know like to lunch, or instead of a magazine – to the bathroom, lol – My triggers ganged up and came out this weekend and whoa, it was something else– AND today the universe decided to use another’s trigger to work mine.
Friend calls (oh I got the 5:45 call, so it was not her) and tells me about a scenario that by giving into something, a mess was created. She was upset by the responses that she received. I prayed and listened, calmly explained what I was hearing from her and asked questions for clarification, and prayed again. However, God used that for me to see that while this statement “I got this” no longer causes me the internal stressors that it has, I STIIILLLLLLL GOT TONS OF WORK TO BE DONE.

Many of our triggers, (stressors) come from an area within where our beliefs about ourselves have become self-limiting. This happens because of someone else’s words, deeds and our own perception of what we believe the intent of another. As a result, we assimilate that self-limiting behavior into our mind, body and soul and the enemy whose job is to kill, steal and destroy, truly has our assistance in doing that – how? Because we begin to use words like, I can’t, it won’t work, I’ll try, see I told you s/he would do that, it’s not my fault, etc. and the biggest one is BUT. We are hurt by events that are precipitated, (triggered, activated, sparked, prompted) by others words actions and deeds. What we are feeling, our emotions, flows out of our thoughts. We, unfortunately can become – very defensive, aggressive with no filters or “I need to please” everyone thus making us feel inadequate, in some way shape or form and that builds FEAR in us.

In biblical prespective – let us review three scriptures:
“Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9
“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” Genesis 15:1
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.” Isaiah 41:10

The mind is the battlefield for one aspect of spiritual warfare as the demonic kingdom puts ideas into us to question all that we know about God. When they can get us to DOUBT any measure of God’s perfect love, power and provision for us, then fear overwhelm us.

Understanding and revelation from God’s word, coupled with a proactive application of that truth represents faith in action. The perfect love of the Father drives out fear but that must come from revelation not just head knowledge!

Today – I want you to meditate on this song – It was released in 1972 and it became one of this groups biggest hit singles to date, the last single the group released prior to them leaving Motown- which was a place of comfort even though it was uncomfortable in many aspects to their careers and they were not properly compensated.

This is also a testament to how hard this journey is and how necessary for some it may be to stick to it. Be Blessed today!

“Neither One Of Us”
It’s sad to think, we’re not gonna make it
And it’s gotten to the point where we just can’t fake it (Ooo)
For some unGodly reason we just won’t let it die (let it die)
I guess neither one of us (neither one of us)
Wants to be the first to say good bye

I keep on wondering (wondering)
What I’m gonna do with out ya (do without you)
And I guess you must be wondering that same thing too (Ooo)
So we go on, go on together living a lie (living our lie)
Because neither one of us (neither one of us)
Wants to be the first to say good bye

Oooooh ev’rytime I find the nerve
Everytime I find the nerve to say I’m leavin’ (leavin’)
Oh, memories, those old memories get in my way (my way my way)
Oh (Ooo) Lord knows it’s only me only knows it’s only me
That I’m deceiving
When it comes to saying good bye
That’s a simple word that I just cannot say

There can be no way, there can be no way
This can have a happy ending (happy ending)
So we just go on (we go on) hurting and pretending
And convincing ourselves to give it just one more try (one more try)
Because neither one of us (Neither one of us)
Wants to be the first to say
Neither one of us (neither one of us) Wants to be the first to say
Neither one of us (Neither one of us) wants to be the first to say
Farewell my love, goodbye (goodbye)

Rev. Jacki

Day 2 – A Fresh Start Monday

May 2nd, 2016   •   no comments   

IAM

Hello Sisters,

Try to make the time during your devotions and if you don’t have a devotional period, perhaps this is a time to begin. Our commitment in this 40 days is to shift from a certain way of being that we considered normal, [triggers] into a whole new way of being, leaning and depending on Jesus Christ as our guide.

For the remainder of the 39 days, we are going to be paying very close attention to the thoughts that we are having, the words that we are using, the stories that we are telling. As we do this, we will start to notice the voice in your head, and there’s actually two voices. You’re going to be able to distinguish between the two of them.

So I ask that you think about the beliefs that you hold about yourself – beliefs that have been unconsciously running the show. I suggest that you write them down and then take another piece of paper and remember that old things have passed away; you are a new creation in Christ and take the card that you were given and declare those beliefs – and here are few others: I am forgiving myself and others; I am NOW willing to let go of past beliefs about myself because those are my past and I take the next steps toward a better future. I begin every day with forgiveness, gratitude and live every day with love. I clear my grief with cleansing tears; My heart beats to the rhythm of love; This is one statement that for me is life changing: I easily let go of ALL disempowering beliefs. TRUST GOD for guidance and watch THINGS CHANGE.

Rev. Jacki

He Is Risen! Now what?

March 31st, 2013   •   no comments   

Matthew 28:6 (NIV) He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

It’s Resurrection Sunday evening and I’m a little tired from all of my celebrating. I went to Maundy Thursday service, Good Friday service and Easter service at two different churches. After I went to the early service at my church, I was inspired  to visit another in the afternoon.  It makes sense that I tired feeling , I have spent a ton of time worshipping and praising the Lord. I’ve been to four services over this long weekend and have heard a total of 10 different messages. Each individual message definitely spoke to me.  This includes pastors who shared on the each of the seven last words.

 

Each and every service I went to was extremely powerful. The words were so on point. I know that I know that I know Jesus died and he rose again for me. He certainly died for you too.  Redemption has been granted.  The resurrection is real. Jesus is alive for us all and in us all who believe, accept and know.

 

For a moment, I’m going to focus on me. I’m not really taking this as a selfish moment. I am, however, putting myself on blast – a sort of public accountability session. Can I spend this much time with the Lord and in the company of believers, live through so many spiritual and emotional experiences and still be the same ‘Joy” I was?  This is not just limited to the services. I’m also counting all of the effort of the Lenten Challenge. It is possible that all of it is just temporary.  Should it be? Of course not! There should be some lasting change. Will there be?

 

Just as I prepared to type these words, I took a moment to check my twitter account.  Unwiittingly, my friend Aqua Copeland gave me the answer.

 

@Favored1Aqua We can’t stay trapped in the same condition, issues, and situations year after year. We have #Resurrection Power!

 

Clearly, I took on the #LentenChallenge to be transformed. I’m looking for self-improvement and a greater spiritual connection. I’ve created some positive momentum. Will it stick? Or will I simply go back to my old ways? When I had the opportunity to add old stuff back in to my diet after the stroke of midnight, I didn’t miss a beat. Chocolate was popped into my moth. Fish was on plate. Cheesy carbs were also added. While I don’t plan to gorge myself as I have done in the past or eat some of these things all the time,  I really have yet to commit myself to plan. I could slip into a new bad habit without focus and effort.  I am working and praying on a better path. The evidence will be when I act on it.

 

How I take care of my body temple is only one aspect of making sure that I’m GospelFit and drawing closer to the Lord and connecting to “Resurrection Power!”  Even though, I’m feeling a little tired, I’m also feeling on fire for the Lord. Continually working to build my relationship with the Lord needs to bear some tangible fruit. I’ll be praying, meditating and focusing on translating that feeling into action.  What about you?

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