Mountains

What mountains are you facing at the moment?

No matter what mountain you are facing there is something I want to remind you of – that God is bigger and greater

than any and every mountain you are facing and will ever face.

The devil’s hope is that the mountains in our lives will stop us in our tracks. He hopes that fear will get us to doubt

God’s greatness and power.

And to be honest, I was feeling overwhelmed a few days ago by the mountains in my life. I could even say fear began to

grow the more I analyzed the mountains. I looked at my strength and resources and saw how painfully lacking I was to

deal with the mountains and that’s how the fear, the hopelessness, and anxiety came. But I was reminded that God is

bigger and greater than the mountains I face as I brought my fears to Him. God wants you to talk to Him about what you

are struggling with always. He cares about what you are going through.

There is no mountain that God can’t take deal with.

“Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerrubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by

power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.

Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain:

Zechariah 4:6

I also think about the Israelites who were by the “gate” of their promise land but instead of trusting God and possessing

what He promised them, they looked at how powerful their “mountain” was compared to themselves.

That’s where they made the mistake. Instead of comparing the “mountain” to God, they compared the “mountain” to

themselves and that’s where we hear words like grasshoppers appear.

We can’t overcome mountains in our own strength. We need God period.

Bring your mountains to Him and remember that He is bigger and greater than every mountain that you are facing!

Bless you friends.

Rolain

What God Does With Our Rough Starts

No matter how bad a start you have had in life know that God is stronger and greater than your past. No matter how dark your past has been, how painful and hopeless it was, know that God will turn it around. You can look forward in hope because He has better things in store for you. Don’t let the negative things you experienced in the past make you think that things will not change. They will change because God is in full control of your life and He has an amazing future in store for you.

I think of Mary Magdalene.

She had a rough start. She had been demon possessed and was a prostitute but her life was turned around when she met Jesus. He cast out the seven demons that had possessed her (Luke 8:1, 2). Her life was never the same after she met Jesus.

She was the first person to see Jesus after He got resurrected (John 20:14-17)

We don’t know much about her life after Jesus ascended to heaven but I would like to guess she was used mightily by God. Her life was never the same again because Jesus turned her darkness and rough start into something beautiful.

As I come to the end of the post I want to encourage you to be expectant for what God has in store for you. No matter how rough your start has been know that God has something better for you.

Don’t allow the enemy to lie to you that things will never change because it’s a lie. You can be expectant for things to change because God is the One who is orchestrating things in your life. Put all of your hope in Him. Trust Him with your life!

Bless you friends

Rolain

God Is Not Finished With You

God doesn’t end things on a negative.

No matter how bad you have messed up know that His plan for your life is still on.

He has so much in store for you.

He is so much bigger than the mistakes you have made.

I think about Moses who messed up. Instead of speaking to the rock he struck it three times and because of his disobedience he never went with the Israelites into the promise land. And that’s where we all stop. But there is more to Moses story. It didn’t finish there.

“About eight days later Jesus took Peter, John, and James up on a mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was transformed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly, two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared and began talking with Jesus. They were glorious to see. And they were speaking about his exodus from this world, which was about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem.”

Luke 9: 28-31 NLT

Moses appeared with Elijah to talk to Jesus about what He was about to do in Jerusalem. I don’t think its a mistake that Moses was one of the men speaking to Jesus. God had a bigger plan for his life than he even could imagine.

That encouraged me a lot today.

No matter how bad we have messed up, it’s comforting to know that God is not finished with us. The mistakes we make don’t determine what God’s plan for our lives will be. God in His mercy and grace gives us a second chance. He extends grace and mercy to us.

So as I come to the end of the post I want to encourage you with the truth that God is not finished with you. Be expectant for Him to move in your life. Be expectant for Him to do some incredible things in your life because He loves you and cares for you.

Bless you friends

Rolain

Do You Have The Full Picture?

Do you really understand the potential you have stored up in you?

Do you understand the amazing things that God has in store for you?

Because God created us He is the only One who has the full picture I believe. He is the one who sees everything and He knows what we are going to accomplish. So our job is to stop defining ourselves by the things we can’t see yet.

You didn’t create you so you need to be very careful with how you speak to yourself about what you can do and about the things that are in store for you. And you also need to be careful of the information that comes your way from other people. Because people will always have something to say about what you can and can’t do.

I think of Gideon who instead of agreeing with what the angel of the Lord told him he gave excuses as to why he was not qualified to do God’s work. And he got those opinions or ideas from the people around him. He grew up in an environment where he was constantly being told he was the least.

Jesus had this same problem. There were people very close to him who didn’t believe in him.

“You can’t become famous if you hide like this! If you can do such wonderful things, show yourself to the world! For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.”

John 7:4 NLT

If Jesus had people that didn’t believe in him what more of you and me?

So remember that you don’t have all the pieces of the puzzle and it’s okay. Press into the Lord. Spend time with him and he will reveal what He has called you to do.

Trust Him with your life.

Bless you friends.

Rolain

Let’s talk about the dead things in our lives

“The Jews said, see how [tenderly] He loved him! 

But some of them said, could not He Who opened a blind man’s eyes have 

prevented this man from dying.”

John 11:36, 37

 

Lazarus had died. Jesus could have saved him but got there late, four days late!

Everyone agrees that the outcome would have been better if Jesus got to him in time.

 

“Martha then said to Jesus, Master, if You had been here my brother would not have died.” 

John 11:21

 

“When Mary came to the place where Jesus was and saw Him, she dropped down at His feet, 

saying to Him, Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

John 11:32

 

But I noticed something not just in this story but throughout the new testament. Jesus was not

intimidated by death. While everyone stopped and came to a conclusion because of death,

He moved forward.

Jesus saw death as something to be conquered which He did.

 

That gives me hope.

When a dream appears to be dead or hope lost, Jesus is beckoning us to keep trusting, to keep hoping.

He is calling us to not give up, to keep believing because He brings the dead things to life!

We may have been disappointed over and over again but we need to remember that Jesus is stronger

than death. Its not “the end” for you.

 

Jairus experienced this truth. His daughter was deathly sick so he went to Jesus for help. (Mark 5:22-43)

He found Jesus and took him to his home. But on the way some men came to him and told him

that his daughter had died. It was all over for him it seemed. But listen to Jesus’ words,

 

“Overhearing but ignoring what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, 

Do not be seized with alarm and struck with fear; only keep believing.” 

Mark 5:36

 

Jesus brought his daughter back from the dead! Death didn’t stop Jesus.

When everyone stopped at death Jesus moved forward and pushed death aside!

 

What is dead in your life? Where has hope been lost?

Look to Jesus because He brings dead things to life. Its not over yet.

Keep believing in Him.

He is the God who performs miracles!

 

Break the limitations we have placed on ourselves Lord. 

You see no limitations! 

You only see breakthrough! 

Amen! 

 

Rolain

 

 

What’s the deal with fear?

I was deep in thought thinking about how I was going to make it.

Wondering how the bills would get paid.

Wondering how my life would turn out in the midst of such opposition.

As I thought on those things fear gripped my heart. I was afraid.

 

But it was at that exact moment that I realized something about fear.

 

Fear was not going to tell me everything would be okay.

 

I should expect no encouragement from fear. It is not an option thinker. All it thinks and

sees is negative. It’s not optimistic.

It will never direct me to God in any situation.

It wants me paralyzed.

It wants me to fail.

It doesn’t want me to see God.

It wants me hopeless and discouraged.

 

Fear chooses to forget God in difficult circumstances.

It can’t love, it can’t trust, it can’t hope.

It focuses on the worst possible outcome in any situation we face when it knows there is a better

outcome in God.

Fear ALWAYS sees the negatives in everything and CHOOSES to ignore the positives.

Or in other words, it chooses to see the dead ends, the failure, the death and refuses to see

light at the end of the tunnel, the hope, the answer!

 

And that is why we can’t listen to fear. As I let fear grip me, all I thought about

were the negatives.

 

But the truth of the matter is that there was another option.

There was a better and more positive outcome if I allowed my faith in God to take the lead instead of fear.

Let me rephrase that, there IS a better and more positive outcome…

 

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), 

but (He has given us a spirit of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind

and discipline and self-control. 

2 Timothy 1:7

 

As we walk out our faith in God, fear will always try to get in the way. It will try to disrupt the faith

we have put in God. Let us fight against fear no matter how long it takes.

This battle can’t be won in our own strength. We need God’s help to show us the areas we

have allowed fear to dominate us. We need His help to overcome Fear so we can move forward

in what God has for us.

The Lord is with us in this fight and leading the charge!

Bless you, friends.

 

Rolain

 

 

 

A time of endurance…

“So Moses and Aaron gathered all the elders of the Israelites. 

Aaron told them everything that the Lord had told Moses. 

Then Moses did the miracles for all the people to see. So the 

Israelites believed. They heard that the Lord was concerned about them

and had seen their troubles. Then they bowed down and worshipped

Him.” 

Exodus 4:29-31

 

The Israelites were in bondage for a really long time. Things had been really

difficult for them. So when Moses and Aaron told

them that God was concerned about them and had seen their troubles they must have

been encouraged.

 

But the hope they had quickly disappeared when the pressure intensified. The joy, the hope,

the faith they had was replaced with doubt, fear, and anxiety. They were not patient with the

Lord. They wanted the deliverance to happen that very instant.

 

“As they were leaving the meeting with the king, they met Moses and Aaron. 

Moses and Aaron were waiting for them. So they said to Moses and Aaron, “May the 

Lord punish you. You caused the king and his offices to hate us. You have given them 

an excuse to kill us.”

Exodus 5:20, 21

 

That story spoke to me today. We need to endure as we wait for God’s promise

to materialize in our lives. His promise for our lives, our families, and our countries will be

contested against by the enemy. There is no way he is going to just sit and let you

stroll into what God has promised you. he is the adversary and by the very nature of

that name he opposes and fights against everything good that God has prepared for us.

 

The Israelites thought it would be a walk in the park but it wasn’t. They had to trust God with

all that they had. They had to believe His word was true. They had to endure.

God’s promise was true and He would deliver them and they needed to understand that no matter

how bad things got.

 

“He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold as a servant. His feet they hurt with fetters;

he was laid in chains of iron and his soul entered into iron. 

Until his word [to his cruel brothers] came true until the word of the Lord tried and tested him.”

Psalm 105:17-19

 

When the promise seems like a fantasy we must keep trusting, we need to endure. His promise

is true, it will come to pass. The Lord is not a man that lies. His word is sure and if He promised

it will come to pass.  Difficulty doesn’t mean the promise won’t come to pass.

There is nothing that can stop the word of God from coming to pass.

Hold on in the storm. Endure, put your faith in Him.

He will fulfill what He promised you.

 

Bless you, friends…

 

Rolain

 

The Lord gave him a picture…..

“Then God led Abram outside. God said, “Look at the sky. There are so many stars

you cannot count them. And your descendants will be too many to count.”

Abram believed the Lord. And the Lord accepted Abram’s faith and that faith made

him right with God.

  

Genesis 15:5, 6

The Lord led Abram outside and gave him a picture of his life and that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

But as I look back at my life I see how I allowed people to give me a picture. The enemy was in the mix

as well and did everything in his power to enforce the picture he had given me

because I didn’t know better. It took years to break the negative picture I had been

given and thanks to God the healing is still ongoing.

The Lord has a picture for you too. The picture is amazing and glorious but there is so much opposition

from the enemy. he doesn’t want you to walk in the plan God has for your life because that’s what the picture

is about. It’s about where God wants to take you. It’s about what He has in store for you.

But the enemy uses fear, abuse, manipulation and a whole lot of other things to blind you to God’s picture.

Don’t accept the enemy’s pictures. They are all lies.

his pictures get you depressed, fearful, anxious, greedy, and weak.

his pictures are all void of goodness, peace, love, fulfillment, faith, joy and every other good thing

God is.

Reject them at every turn. But you need help. You need the Lord’s help.

The good news is this, the picture you have now can be changed. That’s what happened to me.

My picture was really bad but the Lord came and changed it. He replaced the dark, hopeless,

fearful picture and replaced it with His life-giving, fresh, new, energizing picture!

And that’s what He does for us as His children.

As I end I will leave you with a scripture that sums up what I have been talking about,

“Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, fenced in and hidden, 

which you do not know (do not distinguish and recognize, have knowledge of and understand).”

Jeremiah 33:3

Blessings to you, friends

Rolain

Written in a book.

“My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret [and] intricately and 

curiously wrought [as if embroidered with various colors] in the depths of the earth [a region

of darkness and mystery].

Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever

they took shape, when as yet there was none of them.” 

Psalm 139:15, 16

 

“and in Your book all the days of my life were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there

was none of them.”

 

I love this!!  Your life is not random. The events that happen are not accidental. The Lord took care

when He made you. There was thought, there was effort, there was intent.

When your life gets crazy and you have no idea what is happening know that YAH knows everything

about your life. There is nothing that happens in your life that catches Him by surprise, nothing!

He is in control of everything. All your days have been written in His book.

 

I am so encouraged to know all the days of my life have been written by Him. Even when I can’t

make sense of what’s happening the Lord knows and that makes the difference.

When I am overwhelmed or discouraged about the way things are going the Lord knows.

When I seem to be at a dead end, there is actually more journeying to be done.

The Author of my story loves me and is good so I don’t need to panic or fret.

He has the best in mind for me.

 

Turn to Him in your confusion. Call out to Him when things don’t go according to plan.

He wrote all your days in His book. Not some but all!

So the darkness you in now will change. The problems you have will be solved. The questions, the

concerns and the pain will be fixed and answered. The Lord is not done with you yet.

His plan for your life is amazing so trust Him with it…..

Blessings to you friends…..

 

Rolain

 

 

 

….the men told them things that made them afraid!

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

“I was 40 years old then. When I came back, I told Moses what I thought about the land. 

The other men who went with me told the people things that made them afraid. But 

I believed the Lord would allow us to take the land.” 

Joshua 14:7, 8

 

This was Caleb speaking to Joshua and he was talking about what happened when the 12 spies

got back from spying out the land of Canaan. That was the land YAH had promised his people.

But instead of going to possess it like the Lord promised 10 of the spies managed to strike fear

into the heart of the nation which stopped them dead in their tracks.

I want to zone in on a specific part of the verse I just shared;

 

“The other men who went with me told the people things that made them afraid.” 

 

We have to be careful what we are hearing from others. There is so much stuff happening around

us that can make us afraid which in turn paralyzes us and makes us inoperable.

This is not a casual call I am making but a desperate one.

As much as we can, we need to beware of what we allow ourselves to hear.

 

Israel failed to enter YAH’s promise land because of 10 men who told them things that made them

afraid.  This is serious.

 

Our country is about to have elections and there are a lot of people saying things that have the potential

to make me afraid but I have made a choice to block out those negative conversations. I have to do that

if I want to hold on to YAH’s promises concerning the nation. I know YAH has an amazing plan for my nation

but listening to all the negative things people have to say about what’s happening or going to happen will

not help me declare and hold on to what I need to hold on to.

 

You cannot operate in faith and fear at the same time. It’s either you believe or you fear. It’s that simple.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a place for news and trying to keep up to date with a situation, or things

happening around you but it gets tricky when those things perpetuate fear and dread instead of

faith and hope. You decide.

 

Joshua and Gideon refused to believe what the 10 men said. They were fully confident that YAH could

deliver them.

On the flip side, are you the one telling people things that make them afraid? It’s so easy to talk about the

bad things. Let’s change what comes out of our mouths.

When you do talk about a problem make sure you have a scripture, or word of encouragement that speaks

directly to the problem. Don’t leave the room or person on a negative.

 

“The mouth of the [uncompromisingly] righteous is a well of life, but the mouth of the 

wicked conceals violence.” 

Proverbs 10:11

 

If you have heard or read things that have made you afraid then bring them to YAH.

Ask Him to replace that fear with faith and peace and hope.

One of my friends had destructive words spoken to him that were directly targeted to what YAH

had called him to.

Those words hit him hard, harder than he could ever imagine. He is still dealing with the effects

of it today.

Negative words are destructive.

Let’s learn to speak life and healing. That brings glory to YAH.

With that I am out…..

 

Blessings to you friends….

 

Rolain