When you look in the mirror, what do you see? God’s child?

Do you feel like a failure? Are you too hard on yourself?

Self-hate, rejection, and an inability to accept oneself as special and unique prevents us from becoming what God has planned for our lives.

We all need grace to see something different. 

We are made in the image of a great God and it is time to treat yourself better. The Bible says to treat others as you treat yourself…but it starts by treating yourself well! Do something today to remind yourself that you really are fearfully and wonderfully made. I know it can be hard sometimes to feel fearfully and wonderfully made when you are constantly battling the hate, rejection and downright mean things that this world serves up daily. I personally know that the feeling of rejection will have you doubting just how fearfully and wonderfully you are made. To push past those feelings I had to learn to affirm and encourage myself just as King David did when he had half of the kingdom of Israel turn on him when his former mentor and friend King Saul waged war against him.

King David had lost everything. He was feeling mighty low. David was a very discouraged man as he pens the psalms. Life is falling apart around him and in verse 6 in the Book of Samuel it says, "…but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God." He had to affirm himself in His Father's Words.

This has been key to me remaining focused on the vision, I had to learn to affirm the beauty of who Christ made me to be and affirm the joy I feel knowing that He made me this fearless, unique free thinker who isn't afraid to be the real authentic transparent being who truly loves God, His Word and His people. 

Here’s a test….The next time you tell yourself that you’re no good, a failure; unlovable—all lies from the devil—ask yourself this one question. “Would I judge a good friend in this way?” If the answer is “no,” you are not being fair to yourself.

Jesus described God’s loving concern for you, explaining that, “the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” He added that because God cares even for small birds—“not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will”—imagine how much more He cares for you (Matthew 10:29-31). This is my favorite passage of scripture. It is such an amazing reminder that He loves you!

Yes—you!! Remember, you are His child. He is waiting for you to come close to Him so that He can remind you just how fearfully and wonderful you are. 

I have done quite a bit of work in the last two years to create an environment that is conducive for happiness, peace and healing to flow. It first started with me being conscious of what I consume in my natural physical body which meant adapting a new eating lifestyle along with some other things, and then I made some environmental changes. I discovered that the body is a powerful self-healing organism. It has the ability to heal itself, but we must create an environment that it can heal. That's why I don't allow myself to be exposed to just any energy as I bring healing to my body. I found that I had to do better controlling my environment to bring good health and wholeness to my temple. And the application of ALL the information has worked. I see it in the stability in my emotions as I don't deal with the up and down emotions of PMS anymore. I see it in the level of energy that I have to do all the tasks that I have been assigned to do my Kingdom work. I see it in the level of clarity I have about my life and its meaning. I experience it each day I wake up having a sense of confidence about exactly why I am here and what I am supposed to be doing. This is just a few of the benefits of this new lifestyle. I have never felt so sure about me and my relationship with my Higher Source than I do now. It important that I make clear that EVERYTHING in my life IS NOT PERFECT. I still have problems, concerns and petitions on the altar that I am waiting to be answered just like the next person. But because of the high vibration of energy flowing through my mind, my soul, my joints and my marrow due to the transformation that's taking place inward those low-level thoughts that come with an imperfect life do not form and its almost without thought I vibrate to higher thoughts. Those high thoughts take precedence and they tell me that my Father is able to transform that negative energy into something good for me and something GLORIFIED form Him! So really “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn His decrees." (Psalm 119:71)

Our thoughts and ideas build our conscious mind. They influence our subconscious mind and stir emotions; our emotions are then expressed with and through the body. The body is then moved into action which produces results. We then experience what Job stated in The Book of Job, “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.” (3:25) This happens in the most convenient and appropriate forms available. That energy flows in. Plants itself in our heart, then takes hold of our subconscious mind, our conscious mind gives it an image and then it manifests in our world. That’s why I am diligent about doing what Proverbs 4:23–26 instructs, “above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways."

In every circumstance in life, we have a choice to choose a path of perspective. If everything brought to you or you encounter you see the negative and inferior you are vibrating in a low place. It’s easy to vibrate low. Our environment and society feed these low places. However we can make a choice to vibrate higher, above the bad, trusting God’s ability to handle any situation. Complaining, pointing out the wrong, always noticing the bad, always making excuses as to why you cant do things out of your norm or try new things means you are permitting your mind to dwell upon the inferior. And what we focus our energy on and surround ourselves with we become. On the other hand, to fix your attention on the best, surround yourself with the best you become the best.  That’s why I have become diligent in keeping toxic, negative, accusing, unsupportive, complaining, limited vision, small minded spirits away from me as I usher healing into my body and wholeness to my life!  Optimistic, resolute, flexible, peaceful, pure, and pleasant is the type of energy that I want in my personal space as it is conducive for the good growth period I am currently experiencing. 
 
Many of us are in hard, difficult, overwhelming, seemingly hopeless places in our lives but it’s up to you to harness the energy to bring transformation and growth or you can fell prey to the negativity, go backwards and never learn. We ALL have been giving the ability to turn the negative it into whatever form we desire. I suggest you transmute it into good which in turn will transform things within you, subsequently shaping your mind, allowing Him to work new beginnings and shifting things for the better in your life. I am a LIVING WITNESS that keeping the negative out and transmuting higher will bring NEW GLORY AND NEW LIFE!

“I just want to be HAPPY.”

How many times have you said that to yourself? How many times have you heard someone say this? Humanity has been on a quest for happiness since the beginning of time. We’re always looking for it, whether we know we are, want to admit to it or not. We don’t have to be told to seek the things that gives us pleasure, we just naturally, innately, instinctively want to be happy. Consequently, we chase down happiness with everything within us. But is happiness something you chase?

The state of being happy is defined according to the Wester’s Dictionary as “feeling or showing pleasure or contentment, being satisfied with the quality or standard of….” Many of us seek to be happy in material things, friends, our children, spouses and other relationships. We seek to be happy having sex, doing drugs, eating or drinking our favorite drink. Some of us even think we can be happy gossiping, nagging or being shady. But we soon find that none of these things make us happy. This past weekend I ministered a teaching at my mother’s church, Wake Up. Grow Up, and in this message, I was lead to serve a teaching for those feasting at the table to not look for happiness outside of themselves as happiness is an inside job.

So How Exactly Do We Find our Happy?

This is something that I have had to recently relearn. I am generally a happy and joyful person, but as I have shared I have experienced some serious disappointments in recent months that have had me looking through cloudy glasses that could not see the rose color or the glass half full in the situations. I was forced to look through different glasses to know that One who created all things, rules all things and planned this strange ironic reality and I must make a choice to be happy despite what I see or feel — as He desires for me to be happy and I had to make a choice to be happy.
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Our state of happiness is contingent upon our external circumstances. Happiness is based upon what’s happening in our lives and what happens in this life is certainly not always happy. We deal with so many pressures, disappointment, sadness and grief, it can be difficult to find our happy place. It’s important to note that joy is not the same thing as happiness because happiness is based upon happenings and happenings are temporary, but the joy of the Lord endures forever, even in hardships in this life. That’s why you must know that being happy is a choice. 

Maybe you’re skeptical that He wants you to be happy because you have had so many not so happy moments, or there have been teachings that have persuaded your thinking that you will not discover happiness in this life, Well, I am going to challenge your thinking and what you have heard. I believe that God made pleasure and the feeling of being satisfied and He made them because He actually wants us to be happy. 

The Hebrew word in the Old Testament for happy is “esher”, the Greek word in the New Testament is “Makarios”. Both of these words are also translated “blessed.” The person who feels blessed is happy. “Happy are the people whose God is the Lord” (Ps 144:15) In this scripture David penned a happy Psalm about the God who delivered him from the sword of his enemy who was once his friend. And in this midst of the disappointment of a friend becoming a foe, David rejoiced over the fact that his happiness was not contingent upon his external situation, but it was solely based on his relationship with His God; which was unwavering and eternal and not based on circumstances and people which come and go. His happiness was a decision and the result of a decision. 
 
We frequently make the error of thinking that happiness is related to our circumstances. We think if our circumstances get better, we will be happy. Happiness has absolutely nothing to do with circumstances. Happiness is a decision and the result of a decision to not live under those circumstances and to not let those circumstances change us. This is the secret to Happiness. The Scriptures lets us know that we are to live happy regardless of the circumstances that’s our inheritance as Believers; to be happy always. (Deuteronomy 33:29)
 
So, if you want to be happy, change your perspective. Make a decision to be happy not because of  “stuff,” “people,” and “relationships” but like most good things that gives us pleasure you are content and dependent on your relationship with God.
 
HE MAKES YOU HAPPY! ​

Listen to the "Wake up. Grow up teaching here.