Turn by turn

What up peeps?!

I pray you all are doing well. If you read my post on obedience, you know that God placed it on my heart to go out of town for whatever reason. I didn't plan anything. I just played it by ear. I stayed with my cousin who happens to live 5 mins from everything.  I got invited to an event at a church that was in that area so I decided to go by myself. I didn't know anyone really. I had never been there and that was WAY out of my comfort zone. But I remember thinking "Why not?" And I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad I did.

Last night after leaving the "Ladies only" night, I cried all the way back to my cousin's house lol The message reminded me of God's desire for ME. I have to go more in depth on it later but the things I heard this week all lined up to the things I had been praying to God about. I would've definitely regretted staying in Va.

I met some really cool people. A couple of people agreed to let me feature them on the blog. I'm excited about that because I know they will have a lot to say especially based off of all that was poured into me this week. I took a great deal of notes and will be sharing them with you very soon.

I said in my previous post that maybe this trip will lead me to find more of God, more of myself, or both. I definitely found more of both. One thing that was confirmed to me is that FEAR will keep you in your comfortable place, physically and spiritually. There's a misconception or what I like to call a straight up lie, that danger lurks in places you aren't familiar with. God will not take you anywhere that His grace won't protect you.

Honestly I got lost every single day. But thank God I had a GPS. Going to a place I knew nothing about made me fully rely on my GPS. I gave all my attention to the directions coming out of that speaker. I still got lost at times but even then, my GPS said "recalculating." And before I knew it I was back on track.

While heading back to my cousin's house one night, I received confirmation and reassurance. I felt the holy spirit say, "I'm your GPS. You will go on paths you know nothing about. I will take you to places you aren't familiar with. But if you fully rely on me, I will get you to your destination. Even if you take a wrong turn, I will recalculate your journey and get you right back on track."

When you already know you're own way, you will never fully rely on your GPS (God). You have to go places you've never gone or do things you've never done to understand how God will give us turn by turn instructions and lead us to our destinations.

Man, I'm so happy I went.  So glad fear of being in an unfamiliar area with unfamiliar people didn't keep me from going.  I hope you guys keep that in mind the next time God places it on your heart to do something you're not fully comfortable with doing. Don't let fear tell you to "Stay put." FEAR will say that the unfamiliar equals danger. But I know from experience that the unfamiliar equals growth and maturity. #Nofear

Praise God for my GPS! I'm soooooo glad I went! I've learned a lot this week about my strengths AND my weaknesses.  I told my roommate I was feeling led to take a little vaca and she was like "Do it!" Either she was trying to get me out of the house lol or she knew it was a good idea. I'll go with the latter. Stay tuned for details! :-)

And in case you didn't know, I'm sooooooo happy I went! lol Until next time..

Tuning!

On Wednesday night my Bishop was talking about how he had to earn respect from his wife, my copastor. He had to show her that she could trust him and one of the things he had to do was be consistent in his ability to hear from God. I've heard alot of people say "God said this and God said that." But I sometimes wonder if everything they hear is from God or if their own desires and thoughts take over.

Bishop went on to say that it wasn't every now and then that he got it right but he had to consistently hear the voice of God. If this is what you believe God said then this is what should happen, right? Well I started to take a look at myself and evaluate my own ability of hearing God's voice.

I've started to write down the things that God has spoken to me and also when those things have been confirmed. In December, God sent me to sow ALOT of monetary seeds into family members, friends, and even strangers. I felt Him leading me to sow this and then that and then over there and over here. I was just like "Ok God." And I've already begun to see the harvest of those seeds.

One person inparticular is someone I've known for a while. She's one of the sweetest people I know and her testimony is so amazing. I was getting ready to go to church one Sunday and I felt God tell me to find her at church and sow a seed. So I stopped at the bank, found her at church, and sowed it. Two days later on a Tuesday, someone had stolen her ATM card. She didn't notice it until she pulled over at a gas station with her tank almost on empty. The only money she had in her purse was the money I gave her. Wow! Her telling me that boosted my faith and confirms once again that I can truly hear from God. (That's only one testimony.)

As I was about to walk out of the house the other day, this topic of hearing from God was on my mind. And this thought came up, "You know you hear from God when you not only hear the good but you also hear the bad.You know you hear from God when you not only hear the things you want to do but the things you don't want to do." Hmm that made me think. It's possible to have selective hearing when God speaks to you or even to confuse your own desires with the voice of God. If God ALWAYS answers the way you want Him to then................................................................................................................................................lol

To be honest, God jacks me up sometimes. He tells me things that I don't always want to hear but because I have faith in Him, I'll go ahead and follow Him even when I don't understand. It always seemed like some people's conversations with God were always so pleasant. It seemed like He always instructed them and/or confirmed for them to do things they wanted and desired to do and I didn't think it was fair lol I even prayed about that once but realized that as long as I'm doing what He told me to do, I can't worry about what other people believe that He's said to them.

God placed on my heart to join two new ministries at my church not too long ago. I had been waiting for the confirmation what seemed like forever. I felt pushed to join this ministry or that ministry and I honestly got extremely CONFUSED at one point. And I was so worried that the opinions of others were going to block God's voice. It was so draining because although I hadn't heard God, I was worried that He was speaking to me but was being tuned out causing me to be disobedient unintentionally. So for me the confusion made me just step back for a moment and reevaluate everything. I couldn't move until I knew for sure where He wanted me to go. So when He finally spoke, there couldn't be any procrastination. I was so desperate for His confirmation that I think I tuned into Him more than ever, exactly what He wanted. And once He spoke, Helps Ministry app was "signed, sealed, delivered, I'm YOURS!" lol

I say all that because I've learned the importance of truly hearing His voice, not just when it's convenient or when He says things I want to hear but in my everyday life. The world will always voice their opinions and there will be no definite direction if we always yield to opinions in place of God's direction.

So as my Bishop was saying, it's not just about hearing Him right every once in a while but really being consistent with His directions. If you're trying to get to a certain destination, skipping one of the directions is going to cause you to be lost. You have to follow the directions step by step to get to where you're trying to go.

Sometimes God answers right away and sometimes He doesn't. Sometimes He says yes and sometimes He says no. Sometimes His answer is what you wanted to hear and sometimes it's the last thing you wanted to hear. But I want 100% accuracy with Him. Hearing RIGHT is the difference between obedience and disobedience. And God usually instructs us with a whisper. So tune your ears!