Using my time to study God’s Word, I’ve seen something new in a passage that I’ve read and used many times over the years when sharing my testimony. Its taken from 2 Samuel 22. This Old Testament passage refers to God rescuing David from his enemies. Verse 13 says, ‘From the radiance of the Lord’s presence a FIRE was kindled.’ Blueletterbible lists dictionaries referencing what FIRE is here. In The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia FIRE is THE BAPTISM OF FIRE.
This leads to the verse Matthew 3:11, which says,

I indeed baptize you with water. unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire…

The copulative kai requires that the baptism “in the Holy Ghost and in fire,” should be regarded as one and the same thing… The statement, therefore, in this verse indicates the manner in which Christ will admit them to discipleship and prepare them for His service.
(Blueletterbible.org)

So how have you prepared for ministry in your life? In our lives are we standing close enough to the Lord to experience His radiant presence to ignite a fire within our hearts that explodes into people’s lives all around us? In big or small instances that come our way, it doesn’t matter. We need ‘to be ready to give an answer for the hope we have in Christ Jesus’ (1 Peter 3.15) Is it by your power or by His?

The Bible says to ‘Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness.’ (Matt 6.33) ***Challenge yourself this day is to get into His Word. Let it explode into your life so you can pour out on others.

“They looked at Him and were radiant; their faces shall never blush for shame or be confused.” Psalm 34.5

Check out my book A Life Redone at https://www.authorhouse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/464097-a-life-redone

https://aliferedone.blog/2020/03/26/the-baptism-of-fire/

This morning I woke up thinking about a ministry that I had been involved in in the past. How I had an experience with this ministry to lead a Bible study group for ladies, where no Bible study was even offered anywhere within this ministry. This was something I had to fight with a Pastor about to do. I had really sensed that God wanted me to write these lessons on a regular basis, listening to Him weekly for those lessons. I had to fight to even write them. Even though I had shown myself, in times passed, as being a dependable person in the ministry, for a lot of years. I even had the opportunity to share my story with all the churches, a part of my church, on a Sunday morning a few years earlier. They knew I was legit. They had heard the story of freedom and yet they trusted in themselves more then in asking for God’s leading.

I had experienced in other ministries within this church how shallow their teachings were. And I believed that the Lord prompted me to write these lessons for addicts, based upon my own experience from breaking free from years of bondage under Satan. How wrong it is for the church to believe that they are strong enough with their own head knowledge to fight the battles of addiction. This battle is only something that can be broken by the Holy Spirit. And I had experienced this myself in my own life. Over my time serving in this huge ministry I had seen many lose this battle, dying, even after being involved in this church. To this day I pray for the Lord to conquer this spirit of pride that led this ministry at one time. I don’t know what they do or don’t do but I do pray that if they haven’t changed their ways that God would take this ministry away from them and plant these people somewhere they will find freedom in Christ. Not only for the church’s discipline sake but for the sake of these people’s lives they’re trusted with.

Oh how quickly we forget what the Word says:

“My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness.” (2 Cor 12.9)

“LET LOVE for your fellow believers continue and be a fixed practice with you [never let it fail]. Remember those who are in prison as if you were their fellow prisoner, and those who are ill treated, since you also are liable to bodily sufferings.” (Heb 13.1, 3)

Check out my book: A Life Redone

https://www.authorhouse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/464097-a-life-redone

Last night I had a dream I can recall this morning. I was walking around using Jesus’s name to see works done by His power. Everywhere I saw need, to whomever was struggling, I declared things to be done in Jesus name and they were completed. This morning reading John 15 in my Bible are highlighted verses that say just that. If I live [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and and it shall be done for you… I have chosen you and I have appointed you [I have planted you] that you might go and bear fruit and keep on bearing,that your fruit may be lasting [that it may remain and abide], so that whatever you ask the Father in My Name [as presenting all that I AM], He may give it to you (John 15.7,16).

Digging deeper into the text I see when the author John wrote these verses he was stating that we could use Jesus’ name to command things to be done but not in casual sense. Its as if we’re coming to God begging Him, to do only what He can do. That means we’re coming to Him with everything we’ve got in us. Hes our only hope. God knows our hearts.

What about you? Is your heart divided? I know mine can be sometimes. Give God your all and see what happens.

Check out my book: A Life Redone here

https://www.authorhouse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/464097-a-life-redone

I was interviewed by the Associate Pastor of our church. He has a daily show called KDS INSPIRE. Check this out. Sharing a bit of my testimony and just great conversation.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10106538227676424&id=30304253

Chevk out my book A Life Redone https://www.authorhouse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/464097-a-life-redone

New day. New year. New season. I’m proclaiming this over myself and MY life. Goodbye spirit of death. Get off of me right now in Jesus name. I invite the SPIRIT OF LIFE to flow over me and through my blood, in my brain, throughout all the organs in my body in Jesus name. I am healed in JESUS name. No more. No more will I just deal with the infirmity that has been over my body going on now 19 years. No More!! I am proclaiming the WORD of God over myself daily. I am FREE from the power of sin and death. I am FREE from satan’s grasp. “I AM MORE THAN A CONQUEROR THROUGH CHRIST” (Rom 8.37) “If God is for us who can be against us?” (Rom 8.31) The WORD is true. 2 Cor 2.12-13 says, “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing Spiritual truths in Spiritual words”. Fill my mind with thoughts that are “…are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” (Phil 4.8) I am expecting return on HIS WORD. He does not lie. His Word does not return void (Is 55.11)

Check out my book A Life Redone

https://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/BookDetails/464097-a-life-redone

You know growing up you dont really understand the brevity of life. I know I certainly didn’t. I had a best friend in High School until probably my senior year thst was my bud. We’d met in choir freshman year and both moved up in choir basically together. She was smarter than me though. I can still remember her yelling at me for getting grounded again for something stupid and foolish I had done at home. I was sad that we’d ended HS on such a bad note. She wanted nothing to do with me. When Christ changed my heart after the car accident I had in between my 11th and 12th grade year, my whole viewpoint of life changed. She was very much against God. Who knew that years later, in her early 30’s she would’ve passed away? I still to this day wonder if she’d died knowing Christ or not? I was a bad representative of Him in HS. I could’ve had an impact for Him with my friends if I would’ve known Him intimately.

Life is so brief. Dont waste it with having to be right about everything. It’s not about the size of your IRA or about what you have or dont have. Use your time to love others into the Kingdom. Take chances. Share Christ with people because you just dont know when a friend or family member will depart from this world. You want to make sure they know thier eternal life is spent on the right side. Point those you have contact with to Him. Because once this life is over thats it. And when it all boils down to it that’s all that really matters.

It starts with your inner man. What are you feeding yourself? And where is it gonna lead you to? Do you have enough of Him to share? And is He truly reigning to make a difference to those around you?

Check out my book:

https://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/BookDetails/464097-a-life-redone

When reading Isaiah 5 recently, verse 4 popped out at me. It says:

What more could I have done for my vineyard that I have not already done?
When I expected sweet grapes,
why did my vineyard give me bitter grapes?

In this verse what do you think Isaiah was saying when he said he’d reaped wild grapes instead of sweet grapes?Was he possibly relaying what was happening around him? We all are planting things in our lives; some good and some bad. Are we planting what we actually want to see grow up in our lives? The Bible says that we’re gonna reap what we sow (Gal 6.7). Isaiah said in his vineyard he’d expected clusters of grapes to come forth but instead he’d reaped wild grapes. In the Strong’s Concordance it actually means the vineyard produced poison berries, stinking or worthless things, stinkberries. In a real life sense these wild grapes could be compared to hypocritical performances put on by religious folk. These people look like Christians on the outside, doing Christian-like things such as serving, or they may talk the Christian lingo but on the inside they’re sour or bitter. They’re so far from pleasing God that its provoking to Him. You could say their counterfeit graces are wild grapes.

It should make us consider as we read if we’re reaping good fruits in our lives or not. Do you remember the things that God teaches you? The Bible says that even the little things He reveals to us will be taken from us if we’re not wise with them (Matt 25.29). If we don’t have good soil in our hearts to plant truths into, then we’re not going to produce good fruits in our lives. The Lord expects return on the investments that He makes in us.

What are you doing with what He’s revealed to you in your quiet time? Do you have consistent quiet time with Him? If so, are you being a good steward of the truths He speaks to you? Can you be trusted with more because you’ve been faithful with little? This is something I try to ask myself on a regular basis. I think it’s good to question ourselves because when we’re real we can see where the need for change is and improve in those areas. Since we’re open to receiving a ‘rhema’ word as it’s called in the Greek, which is the Word of God spoken directly to us by the Holy Spirit, it helps the work necessary for change to occur in us and we are fruitful.

We all go through seasons in our walks with the Lord. But with change of seasons should bring real change in our lives. What does your inner life look like? How is it different from let’s say a year ago? And is it better or worse? Let’s do as the Word says:
In the morning sow your seed,
And in the evening do not withhold your hand;
For you do not know which will prosper,
Either this or that,
Or whether both alike will be good (Eccl 11.6).

Check out my book.

A Life Redone: My Journey to a Life of Freedom

https://www.authorhouse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/464097-a-life-redone

Late last year in 2018 I was walking in faith, with a word I believed I received from God. That was to pick up my mat and walk. After pressing into God I stopped taking a medication that the doctors used on me to treat seizures for 17 years. Then this year I had an incident in the car that was unexpected. I was driving the car on my way somewhere when I lost consciousness. Instead of hitting oncoming traffic or running into something, I pulled into a parking lot, got out of my car, laid down on the curb and had a seizure. The only explanation for this grace is that I had angels surrounding me that orchestrated this. That morning I recall having asked the Lord to surround me with angels.

If anyone hesitates to trust God while walking in faith I think there’s a truth you need to get ahold of. God is GOD. If we’re really in an intimate relationship with Him we will hear His voice and discern truth in our lives from what is false. We will know what to pray for and be prepared when the enemy comes at us. The Bible says,

…Be careful what you are hearing. The measure [of thought and study] you give [to the truth you hear] will be the measure [of virtue and knowledge] that comes back to you—and more [besides] will be given to you who hear. (Mark 4.24)

Gods grace is enough. Go after understanding. Instead of trusting in yourself and fretting about things you cannot control give them to God. Trust Him. His Word IS true. He won’t let you down. Draw close to Him because when you do, the Bible says He will draw close to you (James 4.8) The Bible also says the blessing of the Lord is sure. He adds no sorrow to it (Pro 10.22). The Lord is your strong tower. The righteous run to Him and are safe.. (Pro 18.10)

The promises of God are true. Get ahold of them. Cling to them, rest in them. Run after the Lord more then anything or anyone else. Because He is mighty to save.

I continue to go after what Christ died to give me. I am confident that this truth is manifesting in my life. Because, ‘By the stripes Jesus bore on His back 2,000 years ago I am healed and made whole’ ( Is 53.5) And I speak those things that are not, as though they were (Rom 4.16) God is not a man that He should lie… (Num 23.19) So take Him at His Word.

Check out my book A Life Redone and be blessed.

https://www.authorhouse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/464097-a-life-redone

How well do you think you’re senses function? Good, somewhat or not at all? In the physical realm how well do you hear, taste, see and smell? How do these senses help you to function better in the world around you?

What about in the Spiritual realm? Are you a student of the Word of God? If so, have you ever reached a point where you feel as if nothing challenges you like it once did? Maybe you can’t connect in a Bible study at church or even have a hard time functioning within the services in a Church body because something’s missing?

We have a tendency to either account for this lack by blaming ourselves, or the church, or we ignore the feeling all together. We read more Bible, pick it apart seeking more knowledge of God in it, pray more, listen to more good music, serve in more ministries all for trying to fill that void. Or we just keep doing what we’ve always done and blame it on our broken world and go on as if nothing will ever charge.

But what IF there were something we could do to experience God on a deeper level? Would we avoid it because we’re afraid of it? Or its beyond the church doctrine we’ve always known to be true or it’s even because our Spiritual senses are dulled down that we aren’t truly seeking change? New revelation to more of the unknown Spiritual workings of the Holy Spirit?

I mean really what would make God GOD if He didn’t have secrets that many miss or that take revelation from Him to experience? Isaiah 55 says, His ways are higher then our ways and also His thoughts far beyond our understanding. What if those ways are available to us when our hearts are seasoned just right to receive? Would He unveil those hidden things to only the hungry, those seeking truly after His truth?

What I experienced early in 2018 was mind blowing. It was FAR beyond incredible. Like nothing I could’ve ever seen coming. It actually brought clarity to what I had experienced with the Lord over all these years and just didn’t even realize. The Holy Spirit brought back to my mind the first instance this happened to me in a vision, many years earlier. It was then I realized these blips that would flash into my mind over the years of that instance of which could never figure out where they were from. Along with blips of instances He tried to teach me how to function in my Spiritual gifts but resisted because I didnt understand . And it all made sense as to how I wrote the book I did:

https://www.authorhouse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/464097-a-life-redone

Not by my might or my power but by the Spirit, says the Lord (Zech 4.6). A combination of not being apart of a church that taught this part of faith stunted my understanding as well as my lack of going after more understanding of what I experienced.

In 2018 I listened to those around me share of also experiencing these and greater things and it built me up. I am a student of the Word of God and have been for quite a few years now. But after my eyes were opened to this picture of God and how truly BIG He is, I have to admit I had been knocked down to where I belonged. How much can we really understand when we think we know it all?

My Spiritual eyes are still being opened even now. I don’t understand it. These Kingdom truths I can’t get my arms around but for some reason that’s ok. I have read verses in the Bible and seen for myself that this stuff is real. It’s called the baptism of the Holy Spirit which ushers in the filling of the Holy Spirit (John 1.33). This is different then receiving the Holy Spirit when you are saved. And a good portion of our churches don’t talk about this. They dismiss it and say it’s a part of a dispensation that is long gone. But I’m afraid our churches lack of teaching and embracing it has caused us, the family of God, to be stunted in our growth. We need to search for truth. If we are going to be overcomers in this world we need a strength stronger then ourselves or even temporarily operating in the Spirits Power. We need a power that is available to us when we feed our Spiritual lives over our physical lives. When we nuture our Spiritual senses we can hear the Holy Spirit and be obedient, we are rewarded to experience God at greater depths (Heb 11.6).

As I continue to search I amazed by words such as POWER and AUTHORITY and really what they mean. And that we really do have them available for our use once we are baptized in the Holy Spirit.

If you feel dry in your walk with God let me encourage you to start seeking after more of God (Luke 11.9-13). Ask God to teach you more. Ask God to help you put things in order in your mind and heart so that you’re ready to receive open heartedly with child-like faith the truths that He will unleash. Your mind will be blown. It may take awhile to digest these truths but once they take hold in your heart MAN nothing can hold you back. It will unleash what the Greek Word in the Bible says over and over Jesus Himself had, exousia which means power, authority, right, freedom, and strength.

Tuesday night in January of 2018 I went to a meeting for a ministry I served in for the freedom service at my church and the room was packed. Pastor Jeff was in the room to answer any questions the leaders of the groups had in regards to the people at their tables. I began sensing God wanted me to ask how we could invite the Spirit to be apart of this ministry. I had an ongoing conversation in my head about how this question might take place. I told the Holy Spirit that He had to speak though me. And that I was depending upon Him to do just that. Then Ephesians 5:18 came to my mind Be not drunk with wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit. After a few questions and comments were made I raised my hand, opened my mouth and what came out I do not recall exactly. I just remember sensing the Holy Spirit breathing out of me the words that I spoke. The best way I can describe the feeling was it was sweet like music that came from my mouth. I could feel the Holy Spirit pounding in my chest so hard it was beating fast like my heart beat, except it was elsewhere in my chest. He was beating so hard I thought He was jumping into the air. And that if you were looking at me you’d see that.

When I spoke it was words of wisdom and knowledge that only God Himself could pour out of me. I said this ministry needs the Spirit of God to pour out on it. We have the power if filled by the Holy Spirit to raise up people, heal the sinner, and break bondage’s. I also said we should not have to see these people die. They can be freed. After I spoke, it was agreed about very casually by the Pastor running the meeting and virtually dismissed. They missed God and didn’t even know it. I did however, sense that one person could see God as I spoke. He looked at me differently then everyone else. That was Pastor Jeff.

One guy came up to me afterwords and said he totally agreed. He said he wasn’t sure about speaking in tongues but I objected and said that was a relevant gifting of the Holy Spirit. I told him I had been refilled just a couple of weeks earlier. Gave him a side hug, asked for his name. My prayer to God was for Him to please do something. Something that can only be explained by Him.

The following Saturday night service I was given another opportunity to sing in the worship band at church. This was the second or third time actually with a microphone and ears in to hear with. I went in prior to this feeling like I was missing the secret presence of God that I’d obtained at that Tuesday night meeting earlier in the week. And I really couldn’t figure out why. But I was prayed up before I went to practice. After practice however, I felt as if I had been snubbed by one or two people in the band. Whether or not I was or it just my inability I could feel, I do not know. But I felt compelled after practice to go by myself and get on one knee and ask God, and the Holy Spirit, for help.

We got back on stage for the worship service and I began to sing with the band. Really I didn’t feel prepared and I again asked the Holy Spirit to help me worship. Well He did. Right in the middle of one of the songs the Pastor jumps out on stage and began to talk. The ear piece to hear everything the band was doing was in my better ear. It had been hard to get it in so I didn’t take it out. With my weaker ear I tried my hardest to listen to what he spoke. I’d also felt like God had told me to leave the ear piece in.

I heard, ‘there was a girl who made some bad choices… one day she was driving in a car and came to an intersection where she couldn’t see. She went and a semi truck hit her car and pushed it. (This was when I covered my face turned to the side and started weeping). This girl was injured. She couldn’t walk, or talk. She had to relearn everything. Then he pointed to me. Well now here she is singing.’ Thats a shortened version of what he said but about only what I heard.

The applause came and the only thing I thought to do was lift my arm up and point upwards. To make it clear that ALL GLORY AND PRAISE BE TO GOD.

What God said in my spirit was ‘keep doing this for ME’.

I can’t understand the Holy Spirit. He is SUPERNATURAL in His workings . But by faith I can accept what I do understand. That is this: I receive POWER by faith. Asking for help that is beyond me. I now have dwelling in me a SUPERNATURAL power that is beyond my comprehension. I have to receive it by faith.

Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that in due time He may lift you up (1 Peter 5:6).

I am waiting. God is not through with my story. I am waiting for HIM to do something through me that is only explained by HIS POWER. That’s the answer. I can’t understand it but I just believe so that I can receive . Be available to Him.

I’m glad to hear the Holy Spirit isn’t something I deserved and that’s why I got Him because I would’ve totally missed out on recieving Him. Instead, He’s a gift that I cannot lose.

We have not received the Spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing Spiritual truths in Spiritual words (1 Cor 2.12-13).

Sometimes it takes a crisis in our lives to make us see we are not traveling the right road, inwardly. For a good majority of the time over this last season in my life my spirit has been dry. I have been asking God to fill me up, allow me to sense Him, and when I’m in the right atmosphere to do so, I do. But since these unexpected happenings have taken place in my life over the last week and I am at peace because I know God will work these things out.

This morning I had an opportunity to go with my sister to pray over someone who has very sick. I did not know until we got there what exactly she had been dealing with but she definitely needed prayer for healing. I am aware now of how I can pray for her. I am expecting God to touch her and rise her up and show those around her that she serves a Living God.

When those unexpected events pop up into our lives we must see the spiritual war behind it. This is something I learned very early on in my faith but have indeed lost track of as I’ve grown older. Truly, what Satan throws at us to trip us up we must view it from God’s perspective. There is always something going on in the background. We have to fight the battles thrown at us in the right way in order to conquer them and bring God glory. Because truly that is the reason for this life. To show people God. If we come at our battles the same way the world does how will they ever see a Living God among us?  If we are the hands and feet of Christ we are not to be laid down maimed by our circumstances. But we are to rise above them in HIS strength.  …By MY God I can scale any wall (2 Sam 22:30).

In order for anything that comes against us to be turned around and used for my good and His glory I have to look at it from God’s perspective (Rom 8:28). I have to believe that God is in control and that He does love me and He will not allow anything on me that is too much for me to handle by His grace (2 Cor 12:9). The Bible tells me that I do not have because I do not ask (Jam 4:2-3). I have to cry out to Him with a sincere heart for His grace. And that grace is enough to handle whatever life throws at me.  It will carry me through. I just have to lean into God for enough of it.

[For I always pray to] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him, By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones), And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength… (Eph 1:18-20)