Recenty, I wrote to a friend in response to her desperate situation. In responding to her deep, wounded need, it actually began a healing inside of me and brought clarity into my own wounded heart. I realized today how it is possible for God to be made stronger, in our weakness. That verse never really made sense before. Through my efforts to help her overcome her problems, my heart was strengthened in the process with a renewed passion. Helping others, can truly help you.

Here’s how it began:

“I need to share with you something that is rising up inside of me. Just this past weekend, I saw the desperation written on your face and honestly I felt partnered to it – like what’s going on inside of you has been going on inside of me. Because, I know that look! I’ve been living that look. The look that desires change so badly, that desires to break free, but feels incapable of going there…but knowing you are destined for it, but have somehow lost the way and are trying every possible outlet to get there.

What we both need in our life is mentorship and life coaching. We need a clearly defined plan of action. That’s my goal and my prayer this week, for both of us. To finally posses definement. We were made for a purpose and to have our plans from the Lord fulfilled. When those purposes and plans are NOT being met – our soul can war. Deep down in side, right now, it’s like we are at war. This is the moment when the will begins to rise up. Because we were created for a greater purpose, and our spirit is calling out for it. If we don’t add the Power of Pursuit to that purpose, we will lack PASSION, we will lack motivation. The opposite of passion is ‘passivity’ – meaning a ’submission to others or to outside influences.’ We begin to submit our passions to “outside influences” and in the long run can be left with feelings of guilt, regret, anger and a sheer longing for what might have been. That’s not God’s divine plan for us.

First of all, you can not let “Guilt” or any feeling of condemnation take root in your life. You have to learn to sort out the Good fight with the Bad fight…What battles are you fighting? What is going on in your spirit? Is the unhappiness a good thing? the ache in your heart really a longing, that is ultimately launching you back into your divine destination?

Seek it out. Most of all Begin Walking. Begin pursuing this dream.Don’t let the enemy or any other ‘influence’ take you captive and hold you up in that room of despair. You have to come out of there. For the sake of your future, and your family. The past failures will not define you, but your ability to overcome them will.

In the name of Jesus…we are letting go of hurts, and disappointments, shame and grief. Roots of bitterness, Memories of brokenness, failed promises, betrayals and back stabbing. They are being washed away under a rapid filled river of release. Once you let go of something under the powerful force of that rushing river, you know, it can never be recalled again. It’s gone forever.

Maybe I needed to rise up for you today, ultimately to rise up for me. Because in the process of giving this out, God is filling me up right now and I know this is not just for me. It’s for you too!

This weekend I met a friend, who told me that she and her husband are signing divorce papers. Very sad situation. Her husband is now living a full life of sin. All she could say was she wanted her marriage to work. That takes a strong woman to allow her self to go through such difficulty and still desire to stay. Her biggest regret, was not loosing a husband, not loosing a marriage, but the fact that her grand kids will be left with a legacy of a grandmother who was divorced. What an untrue perspective! I had to tell her that her legacy will not be her failed marriage. Her legacy will be that she was a great woman of God who stood up in the face of difficulty and she had faith in her Father in Heaven, to show love in the face of hate. And that’s what her grand kids will remember of her the most, her faithful love.

But see, the enemy consistently shows us a wrong perspective about our situation. The only tactic he has is to tell us that we are loosing, truthfully, that‚Äôs his end, not ours. He will tell us that we have lost a battle somewhere, and there is no way to get it back. But the good news says that there is a way back! Isaiah 61 clearly points the way; From despair to praise. From mourning to gladness. That’s good news, and a right perspective. The devil wants us to stay down, to believe the worst and live in that lost hope. But the truth is rising up, and shouting for us to rise up. As women of God its time to rise up!

So my sister, I’m still linking arms with you today. With your calling, with your heart, your desires, your marriage, your finances, your motherhood, with everything about you and together we are going to rise up into the Beauty of who we were created to BE. To Pursue, with a renewed Passion, what we were meant to pursue, without confusion, without fear. I speak RENEWAL over our lives. No longer held back by LACK, or insecurity, or challenge but BREAKing past the REALM of impossible thinking. Breaking forth into new realities and new visions, accomplishments, and completions — by our hands. Nothing holding us back!

“Every Action has an Equal and Opposite Reaction.” – said by Sir Isaac Newton, a philosopher nearly four centuries ago. What goes up, must come down. Newton’s gravitational laws apply to the physical universe, and those laws still apply to our world today. Everything that goes up is still coming down right? The apples are still falling from the trees right? Of course. They are universal laws that God put in place during those first 6 days, that will never be broken.

Tonight I had a powerful revelation, that there are spiritual laws in place, unnamed, but very real. In the spirit world there are the same equal and opposite forces at work. Isaiah 61 touches on a few of these…Beauty for Ashes, Strength for Fear, Gladness for Mourning, Praise for Despair.

The the first mentioned for example. It’s something I talk about often. Beauty. There is a spiritual world that would tell us that we are as ashes, dirt, messy, the epitome of ugliness. But in the Light of Truth, Isaiah 61 covers us with the conquering spirit of Beauty. It’s a war that happens in everyone who experiences the tug of The Liar telling them they are not beautiful. But God has come to give us life abundantly and set us free from these warring spirits.

What is the tug-of-war in your life? Understand that on the opposite end of that muddy battle is the Truth, and The Life, fighting for your behalf, fighting for your True Beauty, for your True Freedom, to give you Hope in the place of Hopelessness….every spirit has a spiritual counterfeit, the equally opposite. Begin taking a spiritual look at what needs to be exchanged in the light of Christ, to reveal the Truth in your life.

An old favorite, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus” reminds me today to look to the light of His Glory and Grace.

Today when I woke up the first thing in my heart were the words, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Waking up with praises on your lips is the best way to start the day. Especially on a Monday! “Praising God because..” is just another way to count up your blessings. It’s amazing how many scriptures are in the bible that can help us praise him this way. Simply using the word ‘because’ is a great way to begin magnifying our praises and blessings. Praising him because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, reminds me today that my body, my organs and my life were created by God. Nothing in my body was formed that was not formed by him. Everything in my body is functioning in perfect order because….it was wonderfully made by Him! So there is no lie from the enemy that can defeat the living, breathing, true word of God for my life.

Another praise, I have to say is that I love being married for four years to my best friend! October 29th was a wonderful milestone in our marriage. I am noticing that in the 4th year our relationship has increased like never before! I’m discovering, marriage is like a baby. The first few years are the nurturing years, and the communication is literally like learning “baby talk” or a foreign language, and loving just comes naturally. The second and third year, you begin to understand the full sentences, you start learning preferences and favorites and you can interpret more clearly the mmms, the hummms, the huuhhs, the ohhhs, and the difference between the whats!!, the whats? and the whats. But in the fourth year – oh this is the sweetest year yet! Beginning to finish each others sentences and communicating beyond words is an amazing experience. And, having someone who knows your tampon preference is something to smile about. Yes, it’s the little things!

October was a really busy month for Keith and I with family reunions and a visit to see our new baby niece, Anna Rene’ Hudson! We also took a weekend last month to go to Birmingham and stay a few days with David, Missy, Andrew and our other new baby niece Abigail Grace Russell! Having two new nieces in two months is so much fun!

Yesterday dad preached a wonderful & fired up message, called “8 Reasons Why Christ is Coming Soon” about the last days, the prophecys and the Great Revival! Sometimes I just want to jump out of my seat on Sundays and run around, because I get so passionate about what the word is saying to the church! God’s word is so alive in me that I just want to shout it up, like a fan at a football game! But I’ll refrain, and spare the family some hilarity and just stick to being dad’s little cheerleader from the front row. It was great to be back in church at Bethel Worship Center, after being gone for a few weeks. Having a church family with people who love and care about you is a another wonderful blessing that I’m counting up today.

I’ve began noticing the foggy cloud of seasonal change again, which causes the roller-coaster lifestyle, like a tilt-a-whirl of emotional dips. Maybe it’s the sun’s lazy-low rotation in the sky or the early sunsets. But the occasional down day, turns into the down week or for some a down season.

Why, oh why do these attacking battles continue to rise up? Just when I’ve counted all my fingers and declared my blessings…boom…it hits again! The Lord showed me that every great victory will always precede a great battle. The enemy wants me to think there is something wrong with me or that I need to be “doing more” or that I’m not doing something right, and should somehow better my life. He wants to busy me with distraction. Because he sees in the spirit what the Lord is preparing for me just up ahead.

Today I am truly more than a conqueror. I finally rose up and began to ask God humbly, ok, I need your help, I’ve had enough ! And he showed me that He has plans for me and he has a Victory, a Reward prepared for me. Right now, I have no idea what this is or when it will be revealed, but I understand the enemy’s attacks on my life much more clearly. Not only did he show me that the cloud of confusion and emotional weakening are tools of distraction and distancing. I never realized that the sadness or the lack of spiritual zeal and the distance I’ve been feeling from being able to go deeper in the presence of God was actually a trick the enemy uses “to Distance Children from the Fathers Heart.”

The days are being released when the hearts of the children will return to the fathers, and the fathers to the children. No longer will we ignore our seniors, but we will long for their wisdom and guidance.

What is the distancing tool being used in your life? It’s good to begin take a deeper look, do some introspection and ask God to show us what are the things in our life that “distance” us from God. Maybe its busyness, stress, worry, fear or like me, those nasty chocolate craving depression days. Just the plain old “yucks,” like Holly Golightly says, “it’s the mean reds.”

Yesterday’s post was on the power of prayer, it’s actually an overlooked layer of the Armor of God. Praying in the spirit will fight off those “mean reds” and help us get through the cloud of confusion and break the ‘down-day’ cycle.

Right after he teaches us to pray in the spirit he says, BE ALERT! (see Eph 6:1 – 19) We often skip over that mandate. We HAVE to wake up, and get alert! Be concious, aware of what’s happening. Are you having marriage problems, sickness, financial problems, car troubles. Take 5 seconds and step out of the chaos and simply say, “Wait! Why is this happening? Realizing immediatly, recognizing instantly, that the battle is not just flesh and blood – something deeper is happening here. It’s a distraction and a “distancing” issue to throw you off course for what God is about to take you through.

Is getting angry over a flat tire, and a spilled coffee worth missing the opportunity to witness to someone and share Jesus with them? Or maybe just taking a day to show your kids a better way, through Christ. Take a second to look beyond the layers, and rejoice, in the face of difficulty. It only means that Jesus has something REALLY great prepared for you, or else your life would not be turning upside down right now!! Be Alert!!!

Every year about time, I start thinking about fasting and closing in on my scriptural reading goals for the year. Maybe it’s because we are nearing the end of the year or maybe it’s just this beautiful Harvest Season that makes me stop, reflect and count my blessings. The bible says, “count them one by one.” Our blessings. That’s really an amazing thought. Literally put your hand up and begin counting. Whether you are a thumb to pinky counter, a pinky to thumb or an index starter, counting up your blessings and looking at the number of fingers lifted up, it doesn’t take much for you to turn those palms around and lift your hands and Praise the Lord!! We are a blessed people, “a chosen generation!” Royal, and called! We truly have so much to be thankful for.

Fasting takes us closer to the fathers heart and prepares us for the next season. It’s a good thing to take some time, and physically sacrifice those moments for Christ. I love the Daniel Fast. No meat, no bread – just veggies. It’s truly cleansing and the new diet full of nutrients truly opens your mind and produces clarity like nothing else. Like Daniel said, it even makes your countenance better than the rest. But another type of fasting I have come to enjoy is the “self-less prayer fast.” Taking 10 days, 21 or 40 days to pray only for others, not my self.

Eph. 6:18, And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

What many of us often over look, is that PRAYING in the spirit, is the FINAL layer of the ARMOR of GOD. All of the other requirements have to do with our spiritual body, or with doing something. Put on, take, stand – are all commands for positioning our armor. But the final, and I believe now one of the most important layers of armor to prepare us for battle, is to always keep on praying for all the saints.

This is the ONE weapon the enemy knows he can easily steal from Christians. Last week I was watching Dog the Bounty Hunter. Yes, I like, “The Dog!” There is something inspiring about a reformed rebel committing his life to capture criminals. And it’s so intense when they are closing in on the bad guy. I LOVE it!! ~{smiles}~ Ok, so anyway. The Dog prays before and after all his catches, (despite the potty mouth he has during the chase), even the whole family gets involved to pray. But this week, he said something that I hear time and time again from people pursuing prayer. He asked his little girl to pray for the chase, but he said jokingly “But pray a quick prayer, honey, because God is very busy!”

Many, many, many people fall into that un-truth, that prayer somehow needs to be few and far between. We have somehow narrowed God down to a human sized time-clock…clocking in and out, on our prayer time with God. For the record – this is TOTALLY a wrong thinking, a human insecurity, and an evil thinking. The enemy wants to tell you to hurry up – don’t waste God’s time, he’s too busy for you. But if you look at the truth in the word about prayer, and listen to the voice of God he is crying out for your voice. He’s waiting on you, he wants your prayers!

So, take some time with me this season and defeat the enemy finally, by initiating the final layer of PRAYER to your armor.

Earlier this year, Jesus showed himself “famous” to me in so many ways and has challenged me and pricked my heart. I have realized that all of my endeavors are in vain, if they are not about making Him famous. I tend to be a relationship-driven, communicatin’ lovin’ – people type. It’s who I am….my “Strategic Coach” even says so! Often I find my shameless promotion, a bit over done. The little cheerleader-wanna-be inside of me just can’t stop yelling for the team, even when the game is over, I’m all in! My promotion sometimes doesn’t know when to stop! The over zealous voice tramples the best of me and embarrassed by having said too much, kicks my pride right back into its rightful place.

Earlier this year when I dove head first into the deep end of social media, I researched every fancy bell and beautiful whistle to make my online existence a shiny award winner. I listened to hours and hours of web talks, tutorials and training. Researched new and improved methods of blogging, tweeting, facebooking, bookmarking, social bookmarking, sharing – anything social online I love it – my new VOCAL outlet!

After about three months of my passionate social binge, the Lord finally spoke to me about my efforts. I will never forget his question. He quietly asked me one morning, after checking my social stats for the 5th time that week…seriously, the God of all creation spoke in my heart and asked, “Are you willing to make ME famous?” — I was humbled and heartbroken. After breaking down my wall of selfish promotion, and asking him to forgive me for not keeping him in the center and I finally realized in that moment, I have not been doing ONE single thing to make him famous. I felt the Lord continuing to show me that IF I were to spend even part of my time making him famous, that I should watch and see what he would do.

So I spent the morning meditating on the thought of “making Jesus famous.” What could I do? With all my new found knowledge, i decided to “tithe” my social media knowledge and time, and start making Jesus famous. So I anonymously created a twitter account. I did not promote myself through the twitter site (despite my deep down urge to), its just about Jesus, and his Voice. And I casually promoted the Jesus account on my own twitter site, anonymously. I had no idea where the road would lead. The Jesus Christ twitter is @RedLetterWords – posting only WORDS that Jesus said, you know, the ones in RED, from the gospels. I set up my bells and whistles for Jesus and just let it roll. I even did like most relationships with him….I left for a few months. I didn’t keep my relationship going. I dropped the ball…yes, the Jesus ball was dropped.

For SEVEN months, in fact, I made no real efforts to make him famous. Until last week, when I began to get that tug in my heart again for catching up with Jesus, @RedLetterWords, and start helping him out again in an effort to make him famous. Because surely, he needs it. Well, low and behold, I discovered something that will forever change my view of any effort in making famous the name of Jesus Christ. He IS the MOST FAMOUS ONE! It looks like my marketing efforts are mere “rags” compared to His mad media skilz! To date, over a year of working the twitteruniverse with @JennHudson, shameless self promotion, I have gained/begged/and pleaded for about 300 followers. 275 of whom are probably social marketing spammers, and 25 of whom are most likely real relationships. My Jesus on the other hand, with one nail-scared hand tied behind his back, has “anonymously” grown to nearly 3,000 followers! Yes, he showed me the way, and the truth about marketing, and promotion.

The Word says, “seek ye FIRST, the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” These words that I am speaking today – are from a heart established to live them. Truly, seeking Him first! Promoting Him first!! Nothing else matters.