My First Blog Award

I am so blessed and honored to have received my very first blog award! I received it from Lori at her Persevere blog.
It is the Arte Y Pico award and it is given to those who inspire others with their creative energy and talents in writing, artwork, design or contributions to the blogging community. It originated here.


What does the expression mean? Well, apparently it doesn’t exactly translate to English, but it loosely translates to, “Wow. The Best Art. Over the top.” (This was taken from the Arte Y Pico blog.)

As a recipient of this award, I have been asked to share the award with five blogs that have been a blessing to me. There are so many that I love and visit regularly. There really are some incredibly talented people writing in the blogosphere. Here are the 5 that I have chosen to share this award with.



*Tamela's Place

*The Caregiver Chronicles

*Journey of A Spirited Strider

*The New Covenant

*Faith Fuel

Your “official instructions” follow:

To the recipients of the award...
1. Pick five blogs you consider deserving of this award, whether for creativity, design, interesting material, or contributions to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Name each nominee and link to his/her blog.
3. Show the award and include the name (and link to his/her blog) of whoever presented you with this award.
4. Be sure to link to the Arte y Pico blog,so everyone knows the origin of this award.
5. Post these rules.

Congratulations to you all !!! Now be a blessing to others as you have been blessed!

Come as you are

Let Us Pray For You

Watching Over Those Who Serve"


Therefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know [them], and be established in the present truth."
2 Peter 1:12:


There are many different aspects to praying

When you come to the Lord to pray , come as you are! You don't need to put on a show, or pretend to be someone that you're not. The Lord accepts you and loves you regardless of whether you are rich or poor, fat or thin, successful or a loser.

Whatever your status is in life He loves you, and He will always welcome you. In fact, that is the whole object of prayer. It is not simply about getting all your needs met. That is only one tiny part of it!

Prayer involves developing a relationship with Jesus - and that is the beginning.
Come into His presence just as you are, and know that He accepts you. The Lord is waiting for you to come to Him so that He can pour His love upon you

Keep your language simple and down-to-earth when you pray.Be specific

You need to realize that He wants to give to you whatever you are desiring

You need to come to Him like a child does ,in simple faith, believing that 'He is real, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him..

Pray in love,,just as bitterness and anger is one of the quickest ways to block an answer to prayer, so flowing in love will bring about a release of what you have been waiting for.

Try these simple steps and begin to see your prayers being answered

Want a Change?

Keys to overcoming the obstacles in your Life

Let Us Pray For You

Watching Over Those Who Serve


There are obstacles in your life and you don't know what to do,there are several keys to overcoming your obstacles, if you give heed to them you will be begin to see them removed and your life transformed.


You are above the obstacles
You have to know who you are, you are an overcomer and more than a conqueror. You are above and not below, the head and not the tail. God has given you authority as a believer. Greater is He who is in you than he that is in the world. He has given you power over all the powers of the enemy.
You have been seeing the obstacles like giants and yourself like the grasshopper.When you do that you are already defeated in your mind because you are displaying a grasshopper mentality. Because your thinking is small, all your circumstances look insurmountable.
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Have a desire to overcome
You must have a desire to overcome, desire change and never resign yourself to whatever life throws at you.You don't have to accept the status quo. You have been in a bad situation for so long that you believe that's the best you can have, but that's not true.You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.The doctors report says that you will have to remain in wheel chair for the rest of your life but the word says you are healed. The doctor's report is a fact but the truth is Jesus has the last word.

Make the effort for yourself
You need to begin to make the effort for yourself. A certain man had an impediment for thirty-eight years and when he was asked if he would like to be made whole, he said he had no one to put him in the water when it is troubled.
Don't be like this man, he gave up even before he tried, he saw all the obstacles in front of him , you have to make the effort for yourself.Its better to try than never to try at all.The violent take it by force, this violent faith always takes things.

Forget the past
Forget your past, don't look back, you can't look back and move forward it will hinder you.You have to forget those things which are behind and look forward to those things that are before you.The past will keep you in bondage, old things have passed away, you are living in the present.
You have to break the old patterns of destructive thinking, how are you going to do that by taking note of where your thoughts are coming from and putting God first and beginning to think the way God thinks.For as a man thinketh in his hear , so is he.
Your thoughts direct the success in your life, whether in your career, relationships, health or your faith.Today you are a picture of what you spoke in your heart in the past, change what you speak today and you future will change.


Live in expectancy
You have to live in a place of expectancy. the man at the Beautiful Gate looked eagerly unto them expecting to receive something, he expected alms but he got more than he was asking for , he got his life back. He expected something and he got it.
And throughout Jesus' earthly ministry , when anyone sought out Jesus to do something for them, it was because they were living in expectancy, always expecting the master to touch their situation.
When the woman with the issue of blood touched the hem of Jesus' garment, .she expected to receive her healing.


Refuse fear
Refuse to be dominated by fear. Job said , the thing which I greatly fear is come upon me.
Whatever you continually fear will come upon you , don't blame your circumstances on misfortune, bad luck, other people or fate.
You ask yourself for it by giving place to fear.You are your own biggest enemy. Change all this right now.
God has not given you a spirit of fear but power and love and a sound mind.



It's time to over come the obstacles in your life, take control.
No matter what obstacles you are facing, realize that the Lord has greater purpose for you.Where all you saw before was an obstacle in front of you, you will soon come to a place where you find yourself standing on it.

Faith

Let us Pray For You


The just shall live by faith (Romans 1:17)


Living by faith is simply living a life where you depend on God in every area and not taking anything for granted, not wavering back and forth between your circumstances and God's promises.
Living by faith is not something you try, it's a lifestyle

Your faith can never rise above your confession, God's promises becomes real as we confess them.
You cannot speak contrary to God's word and have his blessings.People fail in life because they speak failure, your life will never rise above the level of your words
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If you take time to observe, you will notice that every time you allow yourself to think negatively, and speak negatively, you act negatively.
You are where you are today because of your self image, the way you see yourself.

If your mouth is full of cannot and impossible, that's because of the way you see yourself
Its what you see and what you believe that changes things in your life

Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,You speak what you believe.You need to make God's word the standard for your life because it establishes your standard of living., as you learn to say what He says, your life will begin to rise to the level of the words you speak

Therefore I say unto you what things so ever ye desire, when ye pray, believe ye receive them and ye shall have them. ( Mark 11:24 )

Abraham had natural facts to deal with just like we do. He knew there was no natural way for God's promise to him to come true.

Yet the Word says Abraham considered not his own body. In other words, Abraham ignored the natural evidence around him and believed only God's promise.

He made an irreversible decision to go with the Word of God. He made a final commitment. He chose to step past the point of no return. And if you and I are ever going to see God do the impossible in our lives, we're going to have to do the same thing!


So if you are going to see God work on your behalf, you have to have faith to believe what he says. You are what the Word says you are. You can do what the Word says you can do. And you can have what the Word says you can have.

Free or Bound

Then she cried out,"Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!"
When he woke up, he thought ,"I will do as before and shake myself free."But he didn't realize the Lord had left him. (Judges 16:20)


I am going to do what I always do and wreak havoc, Samson thought, but that is not what happened. When he was unexpectedly confronted with trouble, he discovered he lacked the ability to whip his enemies.

This man who had always walked in supernatural strength was shocked that the Philistines were able to grab him, gouge out his eyes, shackle him in irons and drag him off to prison.

How was it this great warrior, this mighty man of God found himself weak and helpless against the Philistines.How was it possible for this judge and defender of Israel who always had the ability to take action against the enemy fall so hard.

You see, Samson had grown so spiritually dead that the Lord had departed from him, but the worst part of it is that he didn't even know it.
When Samson choose to go out and live in disobedience to God, he became an easy target for the enemy.

Sadly the same thing is happening to believers today as we become spiritually lazy we don't even recognize where we are, somewhere we came off the track and got lost.
God has great plans for our lives, we have purpose and destiny, but it has to be done God's way that's the only way.
The enemy will come with his traps because he is like a roaring lion seeking to devour us therefore we need to be sober and ever vigilant, the christian life isn't trouble free.

When we get our victory and things are going well for us, when we are celebrating what God has done for us, sometimes we have the tendency to lean back and take it easy thereby leaving loopholes for the enemy to get in.
The devil's plan is to disrupt our lives, so our job is to continually abide in the Lord. Not Sunday only but everyday.

If we abide in him we will bear fruit, apart fro him we can do nothing. When Samson stopped abiding in the Lord he found himself not being able to do things for God. Walking in disobedience is costly to us and those around us,as in Samson's case and likewise ours.
By staying close to God we will walk in the path he has chosen.

So wherever you are today in your walk with God, maybe you are like Samson and find yourself helpless, I would like you to know that the choice is yours, you cannot stay where you are and go with God at the same time, It will call for adjustments in your life.

All it takes is for you is to start abiding in Him again.

If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned. ( John 15:6)

Facing Opposition

When facing opposition in your life, see it as an opportunity to grow in the things of God
God has called you to do a great work, but you should know that the enemy always comes to oppose what God has called you to do.

Whenever God opens a door for you their will always be opposition to keep you from going through, how you react will dictate what will happen in the situation.The key is obeying God's instructions.

The opposition can work in your favor if you will stand strong and firm in the things of God.
Hannah received a lot of opposition from Peninah, but she didn't give up, it caused her to become desperate and cry out to God, the prophet Samuel was born.

Many times people will come into your life to oppose you but that person can turn out to be the greatest blessing in your life, because adversity will drive you to God. Let your opposition strengthen you.

Joseph also faced opposition from his brothers as well, he made the mistake of sharing what God revealed to him, and his life was turned upside down.In the end the opposition resulted in his promotion in Egypt, he became second in command after Pharaoh.
You need to be careful about sharing God's revelation for your life, some people will oppose you just because God wants to bless you.

Do not hold bitterness against your opposer, turn a deaf ear to the negative things that people will say in order to keep your spirit from being contaminated. Love your enemies and do good to them that hate you.

You cannot afford to be distracted, don't let the schemes of the enemy get you off course, you don't have time to come down off the wall, its a ploy of the enemy to get you to stop working.
Let the opposition push you to strive for a greater level of excellence, it is your opportunity to become more intimate with God.

Ask God to help you to remain positive at all times.When you obey God in your opposition, you know that what the devil meant for evil God will turn it around for your good.

What's in your pipe?

And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word and it becometh unfruitful . (Mark 4:19)


You have been serving God for a while and you had a great relationship with Him. He has used you to minister to others in the past.
But lately you have found yourself drifting away not having zeal for the things of God.

You have woken up and realized that like Samson, you no longer have any strength left to fight.
You have difficulty reading your bible daily and when you do read it you get nothing from it.


You don't seem to be able to pray as before or you have no desire to pray.
What used to be joyful is now a struggle for you, somewhere along the way you got distracted, your pipe got clogged up.

Whenever you opened your pipe you expected water to flow, but suddenly no water is coming.
It now dawns upon you that the flow of water had been decreasing but you paid no heed to it or you didn't even realize what was happening to you.

The cares of this life has clogged up your pipes and choked out the word so that the source of living water has been cut off.
There is no longer a free flow of the Holy Spirit in your life.

Everything in your life seem so dismal, you hardly smile anymore and of late you have gotten grouchy,nothing seems to be working out for you.
Right now the water has become stagnant and where there is no outflow things begin to die.

This is why you are feeling like you are right now.
Take courage my friend, that water can begin to flow again.
All you need to do is to find out what is in your pipe that has caused it to be clogged up.

Sincerely call upon the Lord and confess whatever needs to be confessed so that there can be a free flow in your life again.
Once the water begins to flow again and that flow is maintained with the word and prayer it will increase and become a stream then a river..
As that flow continues to increase it will start to touch things in its path, overflowing into other peoples' lives and bringing resurrection to them.
Today your life can take a turn around, just call upon Him, He will hear and answer.

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.
(Ephesians 3:20)


PRAYER

I confess that Jesus has set me free from the power of ................
I proclaim my deliverance from every form of bondage.
I boldly declare my freedom from worry , self-pity and condemnation
I confess that the walls that the enemy has built are coming down.
Difficulties are turning around to testimonies
The Lord Jesus sets me free and so I am free indeed.
He has given me a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness
I believe and confess that I have the peace of God that passes all understanding
From my life is flowing forth the river of love, health, faith and healing to everyone it touches.

I am blessed and highly favored.

Feed the Hungry with FreeRice

Three days ago my sister sent me an email with a link to FreeRice.com.
After learning about its goals,I began playing right away and has been playing ever since.
The great thing about it is that it has been improving my vocabulary and at the same time I am truly blessed because someone in some part of the world is going to be eating rice that I helped to provide.


Have you ever dreamt or said, I wish I had money to give to help to feed the hungry, when you saw nations hit by disasters and heard about people dying of starvation.

Well here is a great opportunity to help feed the hungry without having to give any money. You mean I don't have to donate any money? no ,absolutely none.
All you do is play a vocabulary game, you can play as long as you like and as often you like. The more you play and the more correct answers you get its the more hungry people you help to feed.





Through FreeRice.com you can donate rice to feed the hungry, their goal is to provide English Vocabulary to everyone for free and in doing so help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.
FreeRice .com is a sister site of Poverty.com

FreeRice has linked up with the United Nations World Food Program to distribute the rice to the worlds hungry.The rice is paid for by the sponsors whose names you see on the bottom of your screen when you enter a correct answer for your vocabulary question and no you don't have to click on the sponsors link

The rice you donate makes a huge difference to the person who is hungry it could mean a matter of life or death for them.
According to the United Nations, about 25,000 people die each day from hunger or hunger related causes, most of them children.

Even though you only get 20 grains to donate for each correct answer, as you play your grains increase and remember thousands just like you are also playing to make a difference

Your 200 or 500,or 1000 grains may not seem like much by itself, but FreeRice in its first 5 months generated enough rice through their vocabulary game to feed more than 1 million people.

So live your dream to feed the hungry by clicking on any one of the banners on this page.

Let Your Roots Go Deep

This is what the Lord says:
Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord.They are like stunted shrubs in the desert with no hope for the future. They live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land.
But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is in the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its root by the river, and will not fear when heat comes or worried by the months of drought. Their leaves stay green and never cease from yielding fruit. (Jeremiah 17:5-8)


How is your spiritual walk?
Are you feeling empty,thirsty, dry like their is a famine in your life, not producing any fruit.Perhaps you have allowed yourself to become a leaky vessel, you are broken, you feel stunted with no hope for the future.

God is calling you today to go deeper, He is calling you back to a place where you begin to hunger and thirst for Him, where nothing seems to satisfy you.
Its time to bring your dreams and vision to the forefront again.

He wants you to let your roots go deep so that when the drought comes you will remain rooted and grounded , you will not wither and die, you will not faint and give up as many Christians are today.

Begin to go deep in the word and prayer and as you do that there comes an abiding, an overflowing. As you go deeper with Him you will begin to affect things around you and that is what God is looking for because a flood affects everything in its path

God is looking for people who would say my soul follows close behind you.
You have to begin to get desperate like Jacob, become a God clinger and refuse to let go until there is change.