I LOVE CONVINCING EVIDENCE!

God absolutely blows my mind! I wanted to share an update with you from a story I shared over a year ago. I was telling you about a friend of mine whose husband left her for a women he was training at his gym. I may not have given you all the details, but suffice it to say it was devastating. I prayed with her, cried with her, and cast out demons and soul ties with her! I have never been leaned on that much spiritually since I've been saved. But what I know about God (or, what convincing evidence he's shown me about his ways), I know. I shared with her everything God had revealed to me about believing that this will work out for your good. I also know that your trial will come out on the other side exactly how you claim it will be.

I shared this with one of you at one of our gatherings when I said don't focus on what you see right in front you. You decree how you want it to end and wait on God to make it so. All we have to do is walk in love in the situation to give no place to the enemy and God will take care of the rest. When you live this way it feels like you are literally ignoring what your physical eyes see and even what you my hear or feel. Guess what? You are. That's what living by faith looks like.

So, back to my story. I told my girlfriend just this. I only asked her one question the day she called me barely able to get the words out that he left her last night. I said, "How do you want this trial to end?" She said that she wanted her marriage back. So I told her to decree it to be so no matter what she may witness until the day he comes back. There is no time requirements on God. So we don't know when he will do it, but by covenant we can definitely know how. I told her right then to claim it, no matter how it felt right now. She did, and begin to ask me a million questions about how this works.

I explained to her that now that she has spoken over her husband she needed to tell me how do you live everyday when you know your husband is coming back? She said you just do what you need to do everyday until then. Just keep living. I let her know that this is the hardest way to go through something, but this is God's will for how you go through while trusting him. So I told her to enjoy her time off from being a wife, go cut you hair and take care of the kids. That was about 2 years ago. Two years with times of gut wrenching crying like the day he served her with divorce papers and again on the court day when he looked triumphantly in her face and said he couldn't wait to get the divorce over.

But I kept telling her that it really doesn't matter if he divorces you when you're not focused on what you see. Just keep living! As a matter of fact, spruce of the house in expectation, go to the gym and work out if you want, just live. Her husband went on a month later to marry the other women. But we stayed on course with our decree. Our prayers were led by God. He showed us that we needed to brake the strongholds over her husband's mind, we cast down the leviathan spirit filled with pride, we loosed the soul tie between them, and the final prayer was for him to see this woman for who she really was. We even prayed for the other woman because she was fooled by satan too and will be devastated when her husband goes back to his real wife! We were praising God all the way through as we witnessed God's work little by little.

Every prayer came to past and the final straw for her husband was the other night when he came over to see his ex-wife and tell her that God was doing a complete turn around in him and he was finally listening for the first time in ages. He told her that he didn't think he knew what love was before, but now he does. He told her he realized he always loved her and he was mad that satan had tricked him out of his marriage and he wanted to come back home!!!! He said he was ready to do counseling or whatever it took to come home.

She called me crying, amazed and mad at this man. We laughed and laughed to see how God moved. It took a little over 2 years, but it happened. Her friends that have witnessed this whole thing have been stunned at how she's handled it all. Some friends have told her that sometimes she looks like she is glowing with peace. She was! That's what you look like when it's out of your hands and in God's. You decreed what will happen and now you just walk in peace until it does.

Until next time,

Coach Teresa

My Flesh(Thoughts) Are Dead

This is a follow up to February's blog. God is so faithful! Sometimes I just can't get over it. Last night in class, my professor said a statement that instantly brought tears to my eyes. He said that when we don't have the ability to do something in our strength, it is God's opportunity to do it for us only if we ask, and then he will do it. In February's blog I talked about believing God to do it and not relying on the our flesh. But I tell you it's still being revealed in me. Sometimes we have the ability to think too hard and it prevents us from seeing things simply, factually. When my professor said you need to ask him to do it if you can't, I instantly thought of everything I have not been able to do in my own strength. Like my weight and wanting good health above all else.

My professor went back to referencing his previous statement when he went on to persuasive writing techniques. In order to persuade someone to see your point of view, they must be willing to see the benefits of your argument before they will change. No one changes their beliefs until they have found a solid reason for why they should change. We can understand this because we live how we believe not on what we know. He went on to say that is the only way someone decides to start living a healthy lifestyle, or stop smoking. They have been convinced to change when evidence presents itself that is stronger than the evidence they currently have.

This is the only time change happens! Then he said that when we don't have the strength to change we can ask God to give us the convincing evidence for change and WE WILL CHANGE. It will be lasting change because again, this is the only way that change happens. When a smoker goes to the doctor and the doctor says that if he doesn't stop smoking he will be dead within a few years based on these certain conditions that have already taken shape in his body. The doctor then tells him that he has time right now to reverse it if he quits. But if he doesn't, he will not be here in a few years. If that smoker is convinced of this overwhelming evidence that the doctor will show him like tests and scans, his mind starts changing at that moment. Even if he has another cigarette after he leaves the doctor's office. This time when he smokes the cigarette, visions of what he saw on the tests and statements of the doctor start repeating in his head. This happens repeatedly if he continues to smoke. Then he starts saying to others, "You know, I really need to stop smoking." After a short amount of time if he stays convinced of the evidence, it will be enough to override the pleasure he wants had for smoking. Irrespective of using something to help him stop. The point is he stopped when convinced.

I now know exactly what I was missing. I'm missing the will to change. I want to change, but I have never been convinced enough to change. But wanting to and having the will to change is two different things. What the world calls lack of willpower to change, we should call lack of asking God for the will to change! Now some of you may have started a journey like this before where you were convinced and you made changes. But there is something that happens to all of us. It's called impatience. All of a sudden we can't wait on God to go fast enough to give us life long change because we can still feel our flesh(thoughts) trying to take over again. So normal! The key is, in those moments fall back on God again!!! Those are the moments that show our faith is in HIM and not us. So here's my prayer that I will share with you:

Lord, you gave me Gal 2:19-21 as a standard in my life for change. I now understand thatI was never meant to live my life by own strength, never. Because you live in me, I willl never trust in my flesh again. I will only live by having faith in you to deliver me and to give me your thoughts and desires for me.

Romans 6:6 says that since you died for me and my flesh died with you, I do not have to be a slave to my flesh any longer. I thank you Lord that from now on, I will come to you for any of my weaknesses in the flesh. I will have faith in you that YOU will change me. You never made it my responsibility to change. You made it my responsibility to have faith in you that you would change me. I have never allowed you to do this in me completely, and I do so now. Lord send me your CONVINCING EVIDENCE in the areas of my life that I need to make a life long change of habits.

From this moment on, I will not use my excuses, my plans, or doubts that it will ever happen for me in those areas. It's not up to me anymore. I have asked you. Your strength is made perfect through my weaknesses. As I yield myself to your words and direction, you will give me the evidence I need to be convinced to change my life. Speak your plan over me Lord! It will never return void. You require that I listen, agree, decree, and then patiently wait for you.

My mind is now changed. I thank you for the visions, rhema and logos words that will come to me now that I have faith only in you and not me.

Your Destiny Is Behind The Gate

So what does God have in store for us in 2009? Only you know because it will entail what you have decreed to happen! So far this year God has blown my mind in his revelations to me. I can feel him speeding up the activation of his words over me. Things are finally revealing themselves. Things I have been waiting a long time to see manifest has finally come to past! Did I mention that I'M IN COLLEGE NOW!!! He's even put puzzles together from way back that now are a part of my destiny. I am actually starting to see the reason he created me to be on this earth. It almost feels weird. I mean, how are you suppose to act once you truly know what part of your destiny looks like. I can not wait to talk to you ladies. All this is happening at the same time that my husband has lost his job in this economic upheaval. We don't feel discouraged in the least because again we have decreed what will work out for our good in this situation.

I put this picture up here because it demonstrates how I have always felt about the covenant and his inheritance for me. In 2003 God showed me a vision. I was standing at the top of this long and winding road right in front of a gate. Behind the gate was all parts of life. I saw my family, my career, my purpose, and tons and tons of stuff!!! I asked the Lord what do I need to do to enter through the gate? He gave me this scripture, "Go through, Go through the gates! Prepare the way for the people; Build up, Build up the highway! Take out the stones, Lift up a banner for the peoples! Indeed the LORD has proclaimed. To the end of the world: Say to the daughter of Zion, Surely your salvation is coming; Behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him." Isa 62:10

I believe what God was saying to me was that my purpose is behind that gate. I will experience the blessing of going through that gate when I declare and proclaim the blessings of God to his people to help them remove the barriers in their life in order for them to receive their reward too. Now, there's so much more to this that you can not even imagine;I can't wait to share. But in a nutshell, I will say this, some of the things you think are preventing you from entering into all that God has for you are really your beliefs. It's what you think that determines how much God can bless you. Not him withholding things from you until you get it right. Trust me, I know ALL about that belief! We are righteous NOW, so therefore we have all of his inheritance available to us NOW. He's not waiting on us to fast more and pray more so we are fit to finally receive what he has in store for us. Tried that one too, didn't work! We should be doing those things to build intimacy with God, and to build up our spirit man anyway.


So what does get us behind the gate? Well, this is another scripture God also gave me on that day of the vision, it reads, "For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
Gal 2:19-21

Okay, I want us to really discuss this at our next gathering. But for now, this is what I know God started revealing to me in 2003 that has only now come full circle 6 years later. God has been trying to get me to drop my "religious" stuff and live by faith in him every since that time in 2003. But I couldn't latch hold of it right away. I had always worked for my salvation, to the point that I would forget I was already saved!! So how do I leave those thoughts behind? I live by
FAITH and die to the law. I have been lightly grasping this in many areas of my life over the course of the last several years. I've even shared with you guys these concepts when you're discussing some struggles you may have. I am constantly encouraging people that God can do anything and that you are a king and a priest; so declare what you want God to do and it will be done. Have faith, he will never fail you. But what areas did I stop those faith statements from being effective in my life? Areas of the most importance to me and my very existence-- like my children, my hubby, and my body. Things I felt I had to worry over...I've got to lose this weight, I must be more self displined, it's my fault. I've got to raise these children right...it's my fault how they enter the world as adults. I got to always save my marriage, look good, care about his every need....no woman gonna take my man! I'm actually getting tired just rehashing the things I know were in the back of my mind all these years thinking it would help. God has revealed that I was trying to work out my life a little with God and a little with my own efforts. But Galatians is saying that I should have no faith in my flesh, but only have faith in God. Be dead to all my efforts and yield everything over to him. That includes my body, hubby, and kids. Now I know I've said that in some form or another, but now I get it completely!! My job is to truly speak his word where the power is, and then keep my thoughts(flesh) dead, and live by faith until HE manifest it in this realm. So until I see you again, I think I will take a little break and go speak to the flesh around my thighs, and let God finish the work.

Until next time,
Coach Teresa