To know Jesus more in 2011

Grace and Peace,

First off I would like to say that this is a word for 2011. Straight from God! :)

Psalm 23:1;4

1The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

   I fear no evil, for You are with me;

   Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

Acts 27:27-44 read it!

Ok brothers and sisters, I believe God's desire is for us to know Him more, waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy more than we can fathom and I believe this is what He will be accomplishing in our lives during this next year. He is our Shepherd, He will lead and guide us as He wills where He wills. In Acts 27 Paul as a prisoner was being led by a centurion with soldiers and other prisoners to Rome. The problem was, they were traveling after the fast was over, this was not a good time of the year to be traveling mind you. And Paul warned them of this, but to no avail. They got caught up in a horrible storm.

Anyway they ended up losing everything except their lives. The ship was lost, food, clothes, everything! All was lost except them. I believe this is something we have a issue with, suffering loss. We don't want to lose or suffer any set backs, failures, disappointments or any other form of loss. But this is what God is calling us to! 

Philippians 3:7-8

7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom  I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,

And He is calling us to these things so that we may know Him more intimately. And you can be confident in this, the value of knowing Christ surpasses EVERYTHING!!!!

To know Jesus more surpasses the value of me desiring a new job, of me being hungry, of me having electricity!

Jesus is calling some of you to stay at that job this year!

He's calling others to fast!

He's calling others to go without "neccessities"!

But listen, if I  can know Jesus more because of it I'll willingly stay at my job, turn down the plate and go without! #ToknowJesusmore# I will forego every and anything and count it as loss!

He wants to take us to new depths and heights in Him! It will be extremely hard but extremely worth it and His grace is sufficient!

There will be storms ahead but as you are tossed to and fro being beat up by the waves remember that God is with you, don't fear any evil or harm. You may lose everything but you will make it out alive Lord willing knowing Jesus more!

There is a temptation for us to run from these but Jesus is urging you to lean into it, and I am too!

Let Him teach you how to trust Him, obey Him, pray without ceasing, to live by faith, love your neighbor, honor Him or your spouse or parents or employer, how to be faithful how to love Him.

LEAN INTO IT

God is dope,

Israel

God's Faithfulness

What it do family?

Psalm 119:90 states, " Your faithfulness continues throughout all generations; You established the earth, and it stands."

The author is referring to God in saying that His faithfulness continues (to) or throughout all generations. And that's what we're gonna focus on this time around. As I read this scripture I had to stop because it rocked me! God's faithfulness continues to ALL generations........Ponder that for a bit............THAT'S HUGE!!!!! THERE IS NO END TO GOD'S FAITHFULNESS (that's my quote by the way. lol :) His faithfulness is never ending. That's incredible!!!!

But you may ask what really is faithfulness? Websters defines it as:

1) steadfast in affection or allegiance : loyal

OR

2) firm in adherence to promises or in observance of duty.

The Hebrew for faithful is the word Emunah (pronounced Em-oo-naw) it means firmness in it's literal sense but figuatively it means stability or steady. The greek word Pistos ( Pis-tos) means trustworthy, sure.

God is firm, stable, steady, trustworthy and sure!

What rocked me about this text is thinking about all the times God has bought judgement or discipline to His people and other nations and they would turn around and still call God faithful. Then I was reminded of something my professor said, "God is faithful across the board."  My question is, Do we really know that? If so, do we really live that way?

You see the tendency for us is to want God to be faithful in fulfilling His promises in our lives. We want Him to be faithful in the good stuff. But what about the bad? Are we brought to a place of awe and worship when God disciplines us for being disobedient because He is faithful? Hum...............

2 Timothy 2:13, " If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself."

As I look at my life I see the inconsistency and double standard of being faithful in the good but not the bad and wanting God to do the same. Quick example, there are times when my kids will be bugging out and I'll speak to them numerous times and say, "if you do that again I'm gonna whoop your butt!" And I ain't gonna say no names but NINA in particular will test the waters intentionally. And sad to say a lot of times I fail at being faithful in carrying out my word.

What is it that you are saying and not carrying out? Or is it that you are being faithful in what you love to do (ministry, etc.) but being unfaithful in the unpleasant things that you hate to do ( work , etc.) Or is it that you are expecting God to be faithful to you according to His blessing but you want Him to be unfaithful according to His chastisement?

Hummmm........ Double standards.............. double standards.......... double standards.........

Well, I don't know bout you but I'm repenting and asking God to strip away my self and my hypocrisy and empower me to embrace Him in all of His glory, majesty and splendor. I want to be able to worship Him when He is blessing me and when He chastises me, in the good and the bad, happy and the sad. I mean He's worth it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We shouldn't have to wait til God blesses us (physically, financially or mentally) to praise Him. He alone deserves it and is worthy of it!!!! We should praise and worship Him just because.................

Check out what the Psalmist of 119 said in verse 75

"I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are righteous, And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me."

OR check out this passage from Nehemiah after God had Judah and Israel led into exile for turning away from Him.

9: 32 "Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and lovingkindness, Do not let all the hardship seem insignificant before You, Which has come upon us, our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers and on all Your people, From the days of the kings of Assyria to this day. 

33"However, You are just in all that has come upon us; For You have dealt faithfully, but we have acted wickedly. 

 34"For our kings, our leaders, our priests and our fathers have not kept Your law

  Or paid attention to Your commandments and Your admonitions with which You have admonished them."

I've said enough, but I would encouraged you all to examine yourselves and pray for God to examine you because

 "All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit"  Proverbs 16:2

I know I want to hear well done good and FAITHFUL servant. What about you?

God is dope,

Israel

God's power to use whatever HE wishes!

God is dope!!!! 

Psalm 119:91

"They stand this day according to Your ordinances, For all things are Your servants."

All things are God's servants, this truth is crazy profound!! Anyway you look at it! All things are Gods servants.

To me that's saying EVERYTHING is Gods servant! He has the power and authority to use ANYTHING, situation, person, circumstance,struggle, hardship, test, trial, even satan for His purpose. Now that's top heavy!

I was talking to a brother today who was in the DMV picking up a copy of his driving record, he was pursuing a dream job and one of the qualifications was that he could have no more than 6 points on his driving record. Well, he was told by his insurance company that he had 22 points on his record. :( But he went to the DMV anyway in faith, praying and believing that that wasn't the case. I had the opportunity to pray for him and I prayed for peace and for the revelation that God was/is sovereign and in control and for him to rest in that.

He called back 15 minutes  later (give or take) excited, he only had 3 points on his record!

The point of the story is this, that situation pushed our brother to trust God, stepped out in faith and lean on Him (regardless of the outcome.) Thus, that situation was Gods servant.

When I opened up Gods word and prayed that He would open my eyes to behold wonderful things out of His law and he showed me this scripture (after the situation with the brother) I was floored and re captured by Gods beauty!

This is a liberating truth if we take it and apply it to our lives! What circumstance or situation, person or thing are you stressing over?

All things are Gods servants. Rest in that and do like James 1 say count it all joy when you fall into various trials because it produces what? You know, and if not go read it........

Man, God is dope and beautiful,

Israel

Diamonds in the rough: Learning priceless lessons in the process

Grace and peace,

A lot of you know I've been walking on water lately :), and God has truly been blazing the stage!!! From my first step of faith HE has been providing people with the knowledge, wisdom and understanding to get things done, and favor as well. People have been seeing the vision and taking off running with it! Taking it upon themselves to do things I never asked or suggested and it's been beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, as soon as I thought the battles for me were dying down, as soon as I thought I made it through the rough part I get a call from one of my co laborers telling me he wanted to step back from it. Long story short he did, this was a hard blow for me!! This brother was very dear to my heart in being apart of this (HE STILL IS DEAR TO ME AS A BROTHER). It was discouraging.....

But after I spoke with him God told me , "Pray for protection over you and your co-laborers." Something I hadn't been doing like I should of been. You see, I just knew God said do it and I was moving knowing God was gonna bring it about. AND HE IS!!!! But scripture also tells us the enemy roams about seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8).  So I took that lesson and continued moving although still discouraged..... but God strengthened me through His word,

Proverbs 4:25

" Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you"

He said, keep your eyes on the target, not to the left or right or behind you. And that gave me strength to proceed! But since then different things have been popping up, like our finances taking a turn for the worst( NOT BECAUSE OF CHRISTMAS TIME EITHER!!!!!!!! lol Actually we have not made any purchases for it as of yet, and don't really care to. But they just went astray with no bad stewardship or errors on our part.) And not just our finances but atleast one other family who has stepped out on faith with us.

And what's funny is as I was meeting and praying with a brother (who was a missionary for 13 years) yesterday he began to pray for protection over me and the first thing that rolled off of his tongue was how the enemy will attack your finances amongst other things to try to stop you from doing what God told you to. That prayer in and of itself was encouraging to me!!

Well, fast forward 2:00am December 14th, 2010 my wife and daughter are in the ER, my daughter with very bad asthma and a high fever, and my wife who was just in there last friday for ear ache, soar throat and chest pains now has pink eye. As I was laying there after they left I again felt God say, "go pray for protection over your family and your co laborers and theirs as well."  So I went downstairs and entered the throne room of grace BOLDY in faith and cried out for my family and everyone who is involved with this movement.

Hebrews 4:16

" Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

How can this event we're doing be a failure? [BTW that's a rhetorical question! :) ] It can't be!!!!!!!!!!!! Even if the event itself was a dud, as much as I've been stretched, as much as my faith has been increased, as much as God has show me about Him and myself, as much as I've saw Gods provision. It's already a success! Me and others around me have been changed , so if it never went any further it's been a success (although it is going further.) And I will continue to press in and learn all these valuable lessons from my teacher and lean into it!

May God be glorified and His will be done.

I ask humbly that you will be praying with me for me and everyone who is laboring with me in this endeavour to see the gospel proclaimed. Everyone matters whatever part they play, we all need each other.

Also, I want to encourage you to lean into God regardless of the attacks and trials that come your way. He wants to teach you invaluable lessons in and through it. And you'll come out like a pearl.

James 1:2-4

"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

I'm excited to see God glorified!!!!!!!!!!

God is dope,

Israel 

Bold as a Lion

What's popping family,

A few weeks ago I started looking for a venue to host an event that I'm planning, and I felt like God told me a specific venue to do it in.

So I went to the venue and spoke to the owner about hosting the event on this particular night. And his response was, "that's not a good night thats one of my busiest nights and I have tried to do events like that before and I packed out the place but made no money with doing it." He went on to tell me how he would have to charge a door fee only to say that he couldn't do that because he didn't want to take the chance of turning his regulars away (understandable). So he said, "pay me $800 dollars and you can do it."

WOW!!!!! I don't have that!!!!! Anyway, I ran this across my team at our meeting and they thought that it would be better to find a different venue for a number of reasons. Being that they out numbered me I humbly submitted.

As we began looking at different locations and getting quotes I was overwhelmed by the prices! Upwards of $2,000 for a 4 hour event! So I went back to God with it and I felt like HE said, "Go where I already told you to go."

So the next day I went back to the owner and said to him, "talk to me" , and he began to tell me all kinds of reasons why I should do the event in the summer time and yada yada ya. And usually I would have agreed with him and went along with what he said because of timidity, but I said to him, "OK, I hear you but I want to do it on this date and in this place, how much will you charge me?" And he look at me and said, "$300 dollars". My response was, "thats what I'm talking about!"

I was very humbled and encouraged at the same time by seeing God's faithfulness and HIS hand in all of this... And I'm praying that the owner who is far from God will come to know HIM.

God is moving in and through and around me and it's a priviledge, blessing and honor to be used by HIM! HE NEVER asks us to do something that HE hasn't prepared us for or that HE hasn't set the things in place already. So when HE tells you to do something step out in faith (which is confidence) in HIM. And depend on HIM because HE's looking for people who are dependant on HIM.

Proverbs 28:1

 "The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, But the righteous are bold as a lion."

2 Timothy 1:7

"For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline."

So kill timidity and walk in the power that God has given you, being BOLD as a lion by going for what God has told you and not settling for anything less!

God is dope,

Israel

The Courtroom

Grace and Peace,

Hebrews 9:24 states, "For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf."

Christ has entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. This is a profound truth and it's very important....... Why do I say it's important one may ask. Well let's look and see why.

Job 1:6-10

6Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. 7The LORD said to Satan, "From where have you come?" Satan answered the LORD and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it." 8And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?" 9Then Satan answered the LORD and said, "Does Job fear God for no reason?10Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face." 12And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand." So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

Job chapter 2 verses 1-6 explains another encounter between God and satan just like chapter 1.( I find that right there amazing in and of itself! The very fact that even satan comes to present himself before God and has to submit and answer what he has been doing.) Now, I want you to keep in mind that Job is viewed as having happened around the same time as the events in Genesis. So let's say these events happened 4 to 6,000 years ago.

Revelation 12: 7-10

 7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 

Now, fast forward to the book of revelation. Satan is only now cast out of heaven and there was no place for him up there any longer. If it's been 4,000 years since the book of job and revelation hasn't even happened yet that would indicate that for thousands of years Satan has be in and out of heaven just as we saw in the book of job.

Now this passage in revelation calls satan the accuser which is what satan means in the original language. It states that he accuses us before God day and night! Lets get a picture of that!!!!

Zechariah 3 :1-5

1 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. 2 And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel. 4 Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.” 5 And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the LORD stood by.

We see in this picture satan standing ready to accuse the High Priest but the Angel of the Lord rebuked him. Now we can see what this looks like! Satan the accuser is accusing you and I in the presence of God daily (and I would submit to you that a lot of the stuff he's saying about you is true!!! Atleast it is with me). But Hebrews tells us that Christ entered into heaven to stand in the presence of God on our behalf!!! Now that's top heavy!!!!

Let's enter the courtroom............. The Judge God.....The DA satan......The defendant me.....and my defense attorney JESUS......... Off back I'm guilty! I know I'm guilty. Just like Joshua was guilty but my guilt has been done away with by Christ sacrifice!!!!!!

So imagine satan hurling all kinds of accusations and some more at God about me........... And Jesus saying in my defense "I rebuke you, He's mine, he's innocent!!!" I definatly have no right to defend myself! Imagine a guilty criminal being accused of murder and as the DA is pleading his case the defendant stands up and say's "foolishness! I rebuke you!" The judge would convict him right there on the spot!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But Jesus is our advocate( he is our lawyer, our defender, he pleads on our behalf.) 1 John 2:1

"  My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."

And here is the picture of the courtroom! We are found innocent by the blood of Jesus and HIM taking our sin away(our filthy garments, our righteousness) and giving us clean clothes(His garments and His righteousness.)

So brothers and sisters this has truly blessed me and I pray that it will bless you. Don't defend yourselves but direct satan and his accusations to your lawyer.

God is dope,

Israel

Walking on water update

Grace and peace,

Since "walking on water" I've been taking steps of faith left and right moving on things that I believed God has previously told me to do. And it's been AMAZING!!!!!!!!! By the end of the weekend I had made multiple moves in and through grace that I would have NEVER thought I could or would.

Monday I was sooooo overwhelmed as I was faced with how much work it would take to get these things done and how big the things I'm looking to do are. I definatly am not able to bring them to pass, matter of fact I'm at the end of myself!!!! I would have been caved in and given up 10 times over..... The battle has bee VERY INTENSE for me to give in.... But God's grace is potent!!!! 

As some of you may know I uploaded some music and I'm blessed by the responses. Thank you all! And I have some great news, which I can't disclose right now( :( I'm sorry). But I just wanted you to know that I'm moving! And if nothing else I've been changed and blessed and humbled by the movement of God in the past week alone!!!

I'm going to leave you all with a proclamation of faith that was recently given to me that I've been committing to memory, I encourage you to do the same.

I am a man.

I am God's man.

I am made in His image.

He is a man of war, therefore I am a man of war.

I will not shrink back at hardship.

I will not expect for life to be easy.

I will not seek false peace.

I will not be distracted by things, amusements, hobbies or disappointments.

I will remind myself that I am made for war. 

I'll holla back soon!!!!

Oh, and pray for me and everyone who is and will be coming along side to labor. Thanks!

God is dope,

Israel

Thankful By Dooch

Walking on water!!!!

Grace and Peace,

Last night I was praying for God to change some character flaws in me that are unlike Him. A few of these are the tendency to be wayward, inconsistent, easily discouraged and defeated, impulsive, care of what others think of me to the point that it hinders me from obedience. I'm was crying out to Him, so ready to be free from these sins.

Fast forward to this morning, my discipler came by my house and 7 am. Now, I knew he was coming and I knew what was on the agenda but I DIDN'T know the specifics. But I've been praying up to this morning that I'll learn something from it.

We were going jogging in the cold weather and I'M NOT A JOGGER! Anyway, we began the run at a steady pace and we came to a hill  and as we were jogging up the hill he starts to talk to me saying,

" You know what I see in you Israel. I see someone who loves God and has a heart to serve God, but you can't take a hit. When life gets hard or obstacles come your way you cave in and quit. When people criticize you, you waver, doubt and complain. People are gonna criticize no matter what you do, they will bring you to your knees and I don't mean in prayer! They will stab you in the back, tackle you, take your legs out from under you and more. You need to take a hit, especially with the calling that's on your life."

By this time we had made it up the hill and were on our way down it. I could hardly breathe and what he was saying was sooo true I was just like whoa. I thought we were gonna be done  but he said, " when it gets tough you gotta keep going." And then he motioned me to look ahead of us to another hill that was much steeper! I was like DAG!

Half way up the hill he says," now I want you to give it all you got, go to the top, I'll be right behind you." So I took off, body shaking, heart pumping mad fast, feeling like I was about to drop. While he as behind me saying, "you can do it. The Holy Ghost has you, do it in His power."  And between 20-30 feet from the top I stopped throwing up flem and the such. He came to my side and said, "come on lets finish and we both walked the rest of the hill.

Now, I had no idea that this was going to go down but God is good!!!! And I told him what I was praying the night before and my desire to walk right out of those chains.

You see God has gifted me and given me talents that I've hidden because of fear. One was writing, those who follow G-disdope know that other than my blog a week ago I haven't wrote since September. I tossed it off because of fear and I have done this with a lot of other talents. Another one was my talent of rapping, I buried it and used every excuse under the sun for not using it except that God was unjust and reaped where He hadn't sown. Mathew 25:14-28 

So all day today I've been praying and pondering on where do I go from here. Usually I would scrap every thing I'm currently doing and start something else(which I was about to do!). But I knew I had to do something different than usual. And I believe God said, move forward with what I've already handed to you in faith. So, thats where this comes into play. It's hard even writing this one, foreal foreal. But I'm responding in obedience through faith. Not caring how anyone views me. And it's a few things I'll be stepping out on, one being using my talent to glorify God and to snatch some of the youth out of the fire.

That's where you come into play, I need your assistance. First off I need prayer and accountability. I ask you all to lift me up and check on me to see if I've shrunk back. Also, I'm looking to raise 600 dollars, yes 600 dollars. This will go into me moving forward with what God has called me to. And third I need encouragement. Any of these will help a brother out. So whatever you believe God is telling you to do, do it.

If you desire to sow financially hit me up in the inbox for specifics.

Family, I'm walking on water from here on out and I would encourage you to do the same.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tt86YJR3gQ

God is dope,

Israel

The streets by Dooch

The Bail Bondsman

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!!!!!!! :) LOL

Grace and Peace Everyone,

Hebrews 7:22 says, " By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament." KJV

Chapter 7 is discussing the differences between the priesthood from Aarons descent and of Melchizedak and comparing the latter with Christ. But I want to focus on the word surety.

Now the greek word for surety is egguos (pronounced eng-goo-os)and it means "pledged" i.e. a bondsman.

Now let me give you some other definitions.............

Pledge- Something given or held as security to guarantee payment of a debt or fulfillment of an obligation.

Surety-  A pledge or formal promise made to secure against loss, damage, or default; a security. OR

One who has contracted to be responsible for another, especially one who assumes responsibilities or debts in the event of default

Bondsman- a person bound by bond to act as surety for another

Ok let me throw this all together.........

We defaulted in the garden of Eden falling into sin........Jesus became responsible for us, He assumed our debts that we owed God..... Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death.." Our debt was death!!!! An eternal seperation from God in Hell!

And He gave Himself as a security guarenteeing the payment of our debt....Romans 6:23, "but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord"

He did this by fulfilling the obligation of the law(which was perfection), Mathew 5:17,"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." and Romans 8:3-4, "By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us..." And dying on the Cross, then raising again!!!

Jesus is our Bondsman!!!!!!!!! He is our security!!!!!!!!! Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!!

If you ever been to jail before (like me) you can appreciate this..... The only difference is the case is finished! Jesus paid for it once and for all!!!!

I would like to encourage you all to rest in the security of Jesus, He isn't just our security in saving us from Hell but He is also our security in our everyday trails and tests. Be faithful!!!!

God is dope,

Israel