Don’t Be Impatient

“When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

Exodus 32:1

If only the Israelites were patient.

But they were not and because they were impatient they sinned. God had not forgotten about them. He knew where they were and He had a plan for them but the people let impatience get the best of them. And also note that Moses did not tell them when he would be back but they had an expectation of when he was supposed to be back and that expectation got them into trouble.

I am not going to sit here and say waiting on God is easy because it’s not. Courage is needed, to wait on God’s timing. But you can be assured of this one thing, He knows where you are at and what you need. He loves you and He doesn’t make you wait just for the fun of it. There is always a reason for the wait and one of those reasons is love. He loves you so much and wants the best for you.

So I want to encourage you to continue waiting on the Lord. He will come through for you. Look to Him and His strength as you wait.

God bless you friends

Rolain

You Have A Compelling Story.

For the past couple of weeks I have been catching up on the Olympics. In times past

I never really watched it. I would watch a race here and there but that was it. I was

never really interested in Olympics as a whole but this year has been different.

I have been engaged and I am enjoying it so much. A few days ago I was wondering

why I enjoyed it so much and it came down to one thing – the compelling stories.

No matter the discipline there is a compelling story to follow. That was what has kept

me engaged and on the edge of my seat. For example, the men and women’s

BMX Freestyle competition. There have been some amazing stories on both the men and women’s side

but I want to focus on the women.

First of all, this was the debut of BMX Freestyle. That was history in the making.

Then Charlotte Worthington from Great Britain won the gold medal which was amazing

but her story continues. The way she won was even more amazing.

She successfully attempted a backflip 360 which has never been done in any women’s

competition ever. On the biggest stage in the world she did a backflip 360 for the first

time ever, landed it and won the gold. Talk about a compelling story!

And as I listened to compelling story after another I thought about you and me as sons

and daughters of God.

Do we have compelling stories too?

And the answer is a resounding yes. God has a compelling story for you and me.

Jeremiah 29:11 confirms this truth,

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

plans to give you a hope and a future.”

I think about Nick Vujicic who was born without arms and legs and in the beginning he struggled

to reconcile why he was born and tried to take his own life but God intervened and turned his

life around. Nick has travelled the world encouraging and inspiring people with his story.

What a compelling story right…

In the word of God I think of Esther. She had no parents and was raised by her uncle but God

used her to save an entire nation!

I also think of Paul who hated Christians and did his best to exterminate them. He imprisoned them

and killed them but God stopped him and turned his life around. He gave him a new purpose and

new direction and used him to bring the word of God to the Gentiles and so much more.

I share all those stories to encourage you that God has amazing plans for your life. He has a

compelling story for you.

But it doesn’t end there. You have an enemy who doesn’t want you to accomplish God’s purpose

for your life. He is trying to stop the compelling stories God has written for you from happening.

There is a war.

You need to stand up and trust God with everything within you.

You also need to stand up and do your part by taking the steps of faith He is leading you to take.

This is a bit of what makes up a compelling story.

You need to be strong and courageous like Joshua as he led God’s people into the promise land.

God kept telling him to be strong and courageous and not to be afraid.

So as you walk in the amazing purpose and plans God has for you remember that He is with you.

He will never leave or forsake you and will bring your compelling story to completion.

He is fighting on your behalf.

Put all of your trust in Him and step out in faith as He leads because He has a compelling

story for you.

Bless you friends

Rolain

Patiently endure.

God will accomplish and bring to pass what He has promised but in the meantime we

need to patiently endure. 

 

As the Israelites travelled through the desert, the Lord promised them a land flowing 

with milk and honey. He would stay true to what He promised them and get them there 

but they needed to be patient and they needed to endure but that didn’t happen. Let’s 

read what happened to them; 

 

“And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of 

Edom, and the people became impatient (depressed, much discouraged) because [of the trials]

of the way. 

Numbers 21:3, 4

 

And as we know they failed to possess the Promise Land because they doubted the Lord. They didn’t 

hold on to His promises when things were hard and disqualified themselves. Waiting on God’s 

promises takes courage. 

If you are in that space of feeling overwhelmed, depressed and discouraged then I want to urge you 

to keep holding onto faith. The Lord is Faithful and True and will not let you down. 

 

“So now wrap your heart tightly around the hope that lives within us, knowing that God always

keeps His promises.”

Hebrews 10:23 TPT

 

God ALWAYS keeps His promises. 

 

As I close I want to encourage you to never give up. The Lord cares about you and the things that 

are on your heart. Bring Him your worries and concerns consistently. 

And be courageous and patiently endure with the understanding that He always keeps His promises 

to you. 

 

“This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep His commands

and remain faithful to Jesus.”

Revelation 14:12

 

Blessings to you friends

 

Rolain

 

 

The courageous step.

In this season the Lord wants us to take a step of faith. He wants to show Himself strong on our behalf and He wants us to know He is with us.

I have been learning this lesson this year and one thing was made very clear to me,

The Lord is not sitting on a couch somewhere, waiting for things to get better, no! He is looking for people who will trust Him to do the impossible.

Joshua was a man who had a huge calling on his life. He was Moses’ predecessor and you can only imagine the emotions and feelings he was dealing with.

But in spite of all he was feeling the Lord spoke to him,

 

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.””

‭‭Joshua‬ ‭1:9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

 

As he was about to take a step of faith into the unknown the Lord told him to not be afraid but to be strong and very courageous.

Taking a step of faith takes strength and courage. Ask the Lord for His strength because you can’t do it in your own strength. That’s something I know He was calling me to do as I wrote my book. Even though it was difficult and even though there were times I wanted to quit, He was by my side helping me.

As I come to the end of this post I have a question for you.

What are some of the things God wants you to take a step of faith in?

Do not be afraid but be very strong and courageous.

 

On another note,

I want to let you know my book is being released on the 19th of September so if you would like to pre-order your copy follow the link which I will put at the end of the post.

Lastly, I have started a series on IGTV called “Behind the scenes” where I talk about fear and the challenges I faced writing my book.

The first episode is out already. Here is the link. Click here.

That’s all I wanted to let you know about.

To pre-order your copy click here.

Bless you friends.

Rolain

When courage is lost.

“[Those aboard] mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the deeps; 

their courage melts away because of their plight. 

They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits end [all their 

wisdom has come to nothing]. 

Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses.”

Psalm 107:23-30

 

“Their courage melts away because of their plight” 

 

I can understand that. Life throws things that have the potential to melt away your

courage. It can throw things that render you hopeless and weak.

Situations that leave you clueless and powerless.

But what I want to look at and discus is how you deal with those situations. There will always

be giants stronger than us. We will always be faced with hard things that we don’t have answers to.

But knowing how to deal with those situations will make all the difference.

 

Psalm 107:23 paints a vivid picture for us. There were sailors out at sea and a storm

arose. The sailors knew a lot about the sea and you would expect that knowledge would help them,

but it didn’t. Their wisdom came to nothing. With all their experience and knowledge there was

nothing they could do. They didn’t have answers.

All hope they had of being saved was crushed. Their courage was lost.

But things turned around because of one thing and one thing alone, God. Their situation turned around

not because they were skilled, not because they were sailors and had tons of experience, and not because

of their strength.

When they cried out to God in their trouble He heard and saved them. The bible says it this way,

 

“Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses.”

 

When you are at your wits end, when your courage is lost because of the enormity of the

storm cry out to God. He doesn’t expect you to deal with the storm by yourself. He expects you to call Him.

He expects you to trust Him in the fiercest of storms.

 

When the sailors cried out to God, He delivered them from their distress.

What are you going through today? What trouble are you facing?

Has your courage gone because of your plight? Is your hope lost?

Don’t lose heart in the storm.

God is with you and He will carry you through.

 

Bless you friends

 

Rolain

God’s purpose for you under attack……

 

We have an amazing purpose to live out that is given to us directly by YAH.

The thing is, the enemy is trying to do all he can to stop us.

As we pursue the dreams Yeshua has put in our hearts we must depend on

Him with our everything.

You may be discouraged and feeling overwhelmed because of the attacks but

take heart because the Lord is with you. Let me share a story with you that illustrates this

truth perfectly;

 

“And [that same] following night the Lord stood beside Paul and said, 

Take courage, Paul, for as you have borne faithful witness concerning Me at Jerusalem, 

so you must also bear witness at Rome.”

Acts 23:10

 

In this verse Yeshua promised Paul he would go to Rome and bear witness of Him.

But in the next verse we read something interesting,

 

“Now when daylight came, the Jews formed a plot and bound themselves by an oath and 

under a curse neither to eat nor drink till they had done away with Paul. 

There were more than forty [men of them], who formed this conspiracy [swearing together this 

oath and curse]. 

Acts 23;11-15

 

Wow right?! Hours after the Lord spoke to Paul the enemy launched an attack against him!

In the natural Paul had no chance against this attack. There were forty Jews who were in on this

including the chief priests and elders.

But we need to look at what was really happening here.

The enemy thought he could stop the Lord’s purpose for Paul. he is so deceived that he thinks he

can stop YAH.

The Lord had promised Paul he would bear witness in Rome. Nothing would and could stop that

from happening. No matter the weapons the enemy used, they would all fail.

But the enemy thought he could challenge that!

 

The enemy’s plans for you will not succeed. Hold on to that truth with all you got.

The truth is this, he is a defeated foe and no plan against you can prosper because the Lord

is with you.

No matter the scheme, no matter the plan, no matter the weapon, they will all fail because the Lord

is protecting you and guiding you on your journey. His plan for your life will come to pass and that

is why I said you need to trust Him with everything you got. The enemy will try to deceive you into

believing he is winning but it’s a lie.

Trust the Lord’s leading, trust He is protecting you, trust He is in total control.

The journey we are on is long and there is plenty opportunity to get discouraged. But even when we

fall we must always remember that the Lord is with us. He is protecting us and directing our every step.

As I end this post I want you to see how powerful the Lord is. Look at the way he thwarted the enemy’s

attack;

 

‘Now the son of Paul’s sister heard of their ambush, so he went and entered the barracks and told Paul.”

Acts 23:16

 

The Lord used a young man! That’s all He needed. He didn’t break a sweat stopping the enemy’s plan.

The Lord has defeated the enemy and will continue doing so on our behalf with ease!

Don’t be discouraged. Keep trusting, keep praying…..

He will accomplish what He promised you.

Bless you friends!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spend time with God today…..

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

Don’t underestimate the power of a quiet time.

This is something the Lord has been showing me in this season. It seems like the amount of distractions

have increased exponentially today. But we must keep at it, we must fight through, we must put down the

phone/turn off the TV and spend time with Him.

This is something we must take seriously. Let me show why;

 

“The council members were astonished as they witnessed the bold courage of Peter and John,

especially when they discovered that they were just ordinary men who had never had religious training.

Then they began to understand the effect Jesus had on them simply by spending time with him.

Standing there with them was the healed man, and there was nothing further they could say.”

Acts 4:13

 

“Then they began to understand the effect Jesus had on them simply by spending time with Him.”

 

I love this so much. Something happens when we spend time with Yeshua. We are empowered, we are

changed. Look at the disciples for instance,

They had changed. The Pharisees who killed Yeshua noticed something different in them.

They were bold, and fearless and had just performed a miracle. They had only seen that in one other man,

Yeshua!

Time with Yeshua had changed them. They were no longer the same. They were filled with the Holy Spirit.

All of this and more happened as they spent time with Yeshua.

I have found this to be true in my life. The more time I spend with Him the more sensitive I am to His voice

and leading. The more empowered I am…..

 

The world is getting darker and darker in need of light. We can be that light, the answer to the darkness but

we need to spend time with Him. The disciples were able to turn the world upside down because of the

empowerment they got from spending time with the Him and I believe that’s His desire. He wants us to

be a light in the sphere’s we are in.

It’s in His presence we find peace, purpose, identity, strength, joy and love. So in other words everything we need.

The answers to the storm we are facing are found in His presence.

The strength we need to endure are in His presence.

The wisdom we need now, is in His presence.

There is always room to be better and I want to be better. I want to spend more time with Him.

Let’s do all we can to spend as much time as we can with Him…..

Blessing to you

 

Rolain

 

 

 

What it means to put your hope in the Lord…..

Hi all….!

It feels like it’s been ages since my last post. I have been

incredibly busy but it goes much deeper than that. The

drive to write left. I am serious. I woke up one day and

nothing! Conpletely nothing! It wasn’t because of a lack of

ideas….

The stuff I had didn’t feel relevant so I trashed it.

Maybe I was just being lazy, I don’t know.

Anyway I am back and ready…..(anyone else feel the same?)

 

There is a scripture that spoke to me this past weekend,

 

[What, what would have become of me] had I not believed

that I would see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living!

 

Wait and hope for and expect the Lord;

be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout and

enduring.

Yes, wait for and hope for and expect the Lord.

Psalm 27:13, 14

 

As we go through life we need to believe. We need to believe

things will change, we need to believe the winters will end, we

need to believe God will deliver us from our fiery storms!

Without a belief in God’s goodness, our lives will be miserable.

 

It’s not wrong to believe in the goodness of the Lord. It’s

not wrong to believe God will breakthrough for you. It’s

not wrong to believe in God period!

So if it’s not wrong, believe!

No matter how dark things are, believe.

No matter how impossible a situation seems, believe.

No matter the years you have spent waiting on God,

believe!

He will come through for you!

 

“Wait and hope for and expect the Lord”

 

I love these words. Wait, hope for and expect the Lord!

 

Wait on the Lord. It’s because He loves you that He makes

you wait.

Hope for the Lord. Put your hope in Him! Like I heard

someone once say, be a prisoner of hope. Never stop

hoping! The Lord is faithful and He sees your hope in

Him.

Expect the Lord to move on your behalf.

Expect the Lord to answer your prayers.

Be expectant!

 

As I have spoken on those three amazing words we must not

ignore the next part of that verse,

 

“be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout

and enduring.”

 

It’s not easy to wait, hope for, and expect the Lord.

It’s a battle to wait

It’s hard to keep hoping

It’s a fight to be expectant

 

The word says as you do those things (wait, hope for, expect),

your heart must be stout and enduring, you must have courage and

be brave.

Waiting on the Lord, putting your hope in the Lord, being

expectant will stretch you to the limit. Even when you feel

like giving up hope, keep hoping, be expectant, wait!

Don’t let the darkness around you quench your faith.

As I close remember to wait on the Lord, put your hope

in the Lord and expect the Lord!

God bless you….

 

Rolain

 

photo credit: google images

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When life seems dark……

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

 

[What, would have become of me] had I

not believed that I would see the Lord’s

goodness in the land of the living!

 

Wait and hope for and expect the Lord;

be brave and of good courage and let

your heart be stout and enduring.

Yes, wait for and hope for and expect

the Lord.

Psalm 27:13, 14

 

My heart jumped when I read this scripture in

the morning. As we live this life there needs

to be an expectation!

An expectation that God, the Maker of heaven

and earth and the whole universe will be good to

us.

The world we live in wants us to believe that there

is nothing good in it.

It wants us to live in fear.

It wants us to believe the situation is hopeless,

that life is hopeless!

But it’s not true people!!!!

As believers we have God our Father!

As believers we have a chance, a very good chance!

God has good things in store for us.

God wants us to believe that!

He wants us to expect Him to show up!

 

If that expectation dies we die!

 

I don’t know what situation you are facing

today but please hope again. Expect the Lord’s

goodness.

 

This is what I have been declaring for the past

couple of days:

 

For You send blessings of good things to meet him;

You set a crown of pure gold on his head.

Psalms 21:3

 

For You send blessings of good things to meet

me.

You set a crown of pure gold on my head!

 

What are you saying? What are you expecting?

Today, believe you will see the Lord’s goodness

in the land of the living!

I believe you will see it if you expect it, if you dare

to believe that God is good and He is busy doing good

things for you!

The last part of that scripture says,

 

Wait and hope for and expect the Lord;

 

It’s not easy to hope especially when the picture

on the ground looks bleak.

It’s not easy to hope when the bank account is empty.

It’s not easy to hope when things are not working out.

 

But the key is to believe that you will see the goodness

of God in the land of the living!

In the pain, in poverty, when things seem bleak

and hopeless,

believe you will see the goodness of the Lord!

Amen and AMEN!!!

Rolain

 

 

What you didn’t know about God’s will……

Moses and Aaron went and gathered together [in Egypt] all the elders of the Israelites. 
Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. 
And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the Israelites, and that He had looked [in compassion] upon their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.  Exodus 4:29-31

The people’s believed what Moses and Aaron had told them. God would deliver them! They bowed their heads and worshiped says the word. But they didn’t fully understand what that meant. I know this because in a few verses later we see them rejecting what God told them,

And the foremen met Moses and Aaron, who were standing in the way as they came forth from Pharaoh. 
And the foremen said to them, The Lord look upon you and judge, because you have made us a rotten stench to be detested by Pharaoh and his servants and have put a sword in their hand to slay us. 
Exodus 5:20, 21

The leaders were told about God’s will for them and they believed. They thought it was going to be plain sailing but they were wrong. God doesn’t work like that. Yes, He has a plan for us but it comes with trials and times of testing. The people failed to see that and it cost them dearly. God’s will for our lives is so amazing but to get there, we will need to go through stuff…..!
The “stuff” is to make us stronger. The “stuff” will strengthen our faith in God. Please understand what I am saying, God’s will is not all trials and testing and hardship. There are victories, times of peace, breakthrough, joy, laughter, favor and a whole lot more. We need that understanding about the two aspects of God’s will.

And I will bring you into the land concerning which I lifted up My hand and swore that I would give it to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you for a heritage. I am the Lord [you have the pledge of My changeless omnipotence and faithfulness].
Moses told this to the Israelites, but they refused to listen to Moses because of their impatience and anguish of spirit and because of their cruel bondage. 
Exodus 6:8, 9

Can you believe that? They refused to listen to Moses and this was only the beginning. There was still the desert to come!
But there is something I would like to touch on that was in the scripture we just read. Impatience can steal what God has for you. The Israelites were impatient. They were not willing to wait or endure. They wanted God to come through now! Don’t get impatient. Learn to wait on the Lord. He knows what you need.  They thought it would be a bed of roses but it was so much more. Walking the road God has set out for you is not easy. It requires courage and trust. I am on this road right now. I am so tempted at times to just take the wheel but God is in control.  The will of God for your life is fulfilling but you need to understand there is another side to it. God doesn’t test us for the fun of it. He has a purpose for it, to bring us out stronger in faith, to bless us beyond our wildest dreams…..He is truly a good God!

Rolain