If you are blessed and you know it clap your hands. *clap, clap* If you are blessed and you know it stomp your feet *stomp, stomp*. If you're blessed and you know it wave your hands. If you're blessed and you know it do all three. *clap-clap, stomp-stomp, wave hands* If you're blessed and you know it then your joy will surely show it.  If you're blessed and you know it do all three *clap-clap, stomp-stomp, wave hands* :-)
My encouragement today is very lighthearted and super simple. When you know that you are living a life blessed by God, joy is your countenance. You cannot be mad, vindictive, spiteful, or desire to perpetuate suffering in others and be blessed at the same time. When you are basking in your blessedness the crazy actions of other people is taken in context. You realize that they need to grow in some areas where you may have already matured, and you take their behavior in stride praying for them with a sincere heart. You remain in peace. You respond with kindness. You go about your merry little way.
Remember, if God saved you from your most awful ways He can help them too. When God is in you, His character becomes you. I leave you with two verses of scripture to consider and to pray from, as you seek to increasingly embody the character of God.

Matthew 6:33 AMP
But first and most importantly seek (aim at, strive after) His kingdom and His righteousness [His way of doing and being right—the attitude and character of God], and all these things will be given to you also.

Galations 5:22-23 AMP
But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Be Blessed!
​~Nina

I am simply thankful this morning that God chose to wake me up with breath in my body, clothed and in my right mind, submerged in peace that simply surpasses all understanding (Genesis 2:7, Mark5:15, Philippians 4:7).
I want to encourage somebody right now to be still and know that He is God. Your trouble is temporary (2 Corinthians 2:14). Keep your mind set on things above, instead of being inundated with the obsessions, distractions, and troubles of this world (Colossians 3:2). Be present and available for what God is about to do in YOUR life. Do not give any consideration to the merits or the malaise of your past (Isaiah 43:18). That frustrating situation you are currently facing is a well timed ploy of the enemy to cause you to absentmindedly miss the open door to your destiny that God has made available to you (Proverbs 14:7, Revelation 3:8). Do not be deceived. Break from your normal habit of succumbing to the havoc around you. The energy you spend nursing the neurotic is needed to nurture yourself and your circumstances in preparation for the next level (Psalm 75:6-7).

God is ALWAYS blessing you because of your obedience to Him (Deuteronomy 28:1-14). Be available to hear the commands that God is giving you right now, and be faithful and obedient (Deuteronomy 28:1, Revelation 2). Your life is a testimony of how God blesses on an exponential and perpetual basis. But you can’t see the accumulation of God’s blessing when you honor and uphold that which steals your peace, inhibits your elevation, and causes you to doubt God’s lavish love and intention for your life (Matthew 6:21, Galatians 6:7).
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Be still and know that what God is leading you to and urging you to do is the right thing for you, as established before you were planted in your mother’s womb (Psalm 46:10, Jeremiah 1:5). Do what you have to do to stay focused on God's plan for your life, perceiving for yourself in the midst of what could be considered calamity that this is the appointed time for His favor to bring your destiny to fruition (Habakkuk 2:3, Genesis 18:4). I am rejoicing with you on the precipice of your breakthrough!

Be Blessed!
​~Nina

Do you believe what you pray? When you go to God in prayer uttering words of praise, thanksgiving, and petition, those words should be set and secure in your heart. Our prayers are sacred communications to the One who gives us life and commands every circumstance therein. God is pleased by our faith (Hebrews 11:6). He wants to give us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4). It is important that when we pray we wholeheartedly believe that God will give us what we ask for in prayer, according to His will. When we pray with hearts that doubt, God perceives our unbelief (Psalm 139:13, Romans 8:26-27). 
My encouragement today is for us all to search our own hearts for any inkling of disbelief in our prayers. Let's ask God to show us where we are lacking in faith and to help us to believe and not doubt (Mark 9:20-25). Let us be reminded that with man what we pray for may be impossible, but with God ALL things are possible (Matthew 19:26). In our prayers, the word of God should be invoked to align what we are praying for with an established promise from God. His word is infallible (Luke 1:37, Isaiah 55:11). Our prayers are secure when they are laced with and can be located by the word of God. 

Today, let us examine our hearts to identify and address any unbelief so that we may seek God as we are encouraged in Hebrews 4:16:
"Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

​It is our belief that makes our prayers bold.

​Be Blessed!
~Nina

I have spent most of my career as a philanthropic strategist working with urban phenoms. My clients have been rappers, R&B artists, and cultural icons who no one ever would have thought could achieve the heights of success in their fields of endeavor, wealth, and influence that they have based on the circumstances of the way they grew up. Typically, my clients have been first generation wealthy, by way of their success in the entertainment industry. Some of them never finished high school, choosing instead to explore their talents full time in their youth. Some of them have had run ins with the law. Some of them have simply come from home environments that challenged their worth and limited their worldview. But all of my clients have had a clear heart-led intention to touch and improve the lives of people and to create a legacy of impact in humanity. The work for me has been to empower them to do so in a society that rejects who they are, where they come from, and stigmatizes them as they journey from nothing to something.

Today, I want to encourage the heart of anyone who feels like you aren't suitable to do what you believe that God has called you to do. We've all been called to do something on God's behalf. It is why He gave us life (Romans 8:30; Romans 11:29). Be not dismayed by people who think that you are not suited for the assignment on your life (Deuteronomy 31:8 AMP). Remember, your assignment may be for the benefit and progress of humanity, but you are fulfilling it to glorify God not to please people (Colossians 3:23, Romans 12:2). God knows exactly who you are. He knows every circumstance of your life. He is using everything you have been through, and even the doubt and disregard for who you are by people who see you as not worthy of the calling God has predestined you for to accomplish His will in the earth (Romans 8:28). God is blessing you for your obedience to His assignment for your life (Deuteronomy 28:1-15). No matter your station in life or what people think of you right now, He is using you to be a source of good to others and He is making your name great throughout the earth. Stay your course.

Take time today to meditate on this passage of scripture in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 AMP:
"Just look at your own calling, believers; not many [of you were considered] wise according to human standards, not many powerful or influential, not many of high and noble birth. But God has selected [for His purpose] the foolish things of the world to shame the wise [revealing their ignorance], and God has selected [for His purpose] the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong [revealing their frailty].
God has selected [for His purpose] the insignificant (base) things of the world, and the things that are despised and treated with contempt, [even] the things that are nothing, so that He might reduce to nothing the things that are, so that no one may [be able to] boast in the presence of God."

​Go forth and be great...

​Be Blessed!
~Nina
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God is the embodiment of all there is, all that ever was, and all that will be. Whatever God establishes is forever (Ecclesiastes 3:14). All that we have comes from Him (1 Chronicles 29:14b). When we trust God to provide in our lives, we can trust and believe that His provision will endure in our lives. We invite God's rich provision by way of our deposits into His Kingdom with our tithes, the way we spend our time, and on what we expend our talents. This is our treasure.
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Matthew 6:21 AMP
"for where your treasure is, there your heart [your wishes, your desires; that on which your life centers] will be also."

My encouragement today is simply that we would invest in what God blesses. Use your treasure to build up the Kingdom of God. Pour out your heart, give of your time, use your gifts and talents to make deposits into the Kingdom of God. The richness in life that we often pursue has to do with generating the benefits of wealth on earth. We spend so much time working, saving, and investing to create a treasury of financial wealth for ourselves, our families, and for future generations. But only what we do for Christ will last (2 Corinthians 5:9-10). Our true wealth is what we have on account with God (Romans 4).
Let us consider our ways today (Haggai 1:5-6). Let's think about where the treasures in our lives are stored. How can we allow a world that will surely pass away to hold the treasures that we've worked our whole lives for, while neglecting the one who holds our lives, our future, and the whole world in His hands? Let it be our intention to invest in what God blesses (Malachi 3:10, Haggai 1-2).
I encourage you today to meditate on the word of God in Luke 12:16-21 AMP, The Parable of the Wealthy Fool:
16 Then He told them a parable, saying, “There was a rich man whose land was very fertile and productive.
17 And he began thinking to himself, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place [large enough in which] to store my crops?’
18 Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my storehouses and build larger ones, and I will store all my grain and my goods there.
19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many good things stored up, [enough] for many years; rest and relax, eat, drink and be merry (celebrate continually).”’
20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own all the things you have prepared?’
21 So it is for the one who continues to store up and hoard possessions for himself, and is not rich [in his relationship] toward God.”

Be Blessed!
​~Nina

My personal mantra in life is "move forward". In every situation I am always operating from the perspective of what it takes to move forward. Life is unpredictable. On any given day we are faced with scenarios of all kinds. Some scenarios are ones that we cherish and others  challenge us at the most impossible levels, and at the most inconvenient times (1 Peter 5:8). Having the personal imperative to always "move forward" means that perhaps I don't sit with my challenges long enough to appreciate the glory, power, and majesty of God's power and favor that had to be exercised to bring me out and allowed me to move forward. I usually just remain focused on moving forward.
Today I feel the deep desire to acknowledge and give God a much higher praise as I've spent the last few days truly considering the magnitude of what God has done to deliver me from the most dire challenges over the years. Not only did He bring me out of things that should have surely killed me, but He brought me out in such a way that I do not bear the residue of those challenges, and I can truly move forward. (Daniel 3:26-27) 
My encouragement today is for us to simply stop and take time to consider all that God has truly brought you through. How many times has God had to override the decisions of your flesh in order to prevent the harm that should have been a natural consequence from taking hold of your life. Just think about it. (Psalm 34:19)
Let us be reminded that God's gifts and call on our lives is irrevocable (Romans 11:29). I believe that God will do whatever is necessary to make sure that we succeed at the purpose for which He created each of us. To do so, He surrounds us with His favor like a shield (Psalm 5:12). His favor protects us from attacks that try to destroy our destiny, and insulates us from being penetrated by the traumas that we would suffer and absorb if He allowed us to engage in battle in our own strength (2 Chronicles 20:15). We must remember that the battles that threaten our destiny are not our battles (2 Corinthians 10:4). They are threats against God's destiny for the fullness of our lives (John 10:10). He is the guarantor of destiny (Hebrews 12:2). 
So today, let us truly be mindful of the greatness of God, and the fullness of His mercy, grace, and favor on our lives by thinking back on all He has brought us through. We did nothing to deserve it. We could not have possibly earned it. Let our hearts be thankful and let us sing high praises to His name. Hallelujah!

Be Blessed!
​~Nina 
  

What a mighty and compassionate God we serve. He loves us with an everlasting love. He upholds us with His right hand. I know in my soul that God is able; With Him all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). I praise God tonight with my whole being (Psalm 103:1). Tonight my heart is open to people of God standing in the need of help. No matter what that need may be, I praise God in advance for the sudden onset of blessings to meet and exceed the need of every believer in the body of Christ. I encourage you to let not your heart be troubled in your condition. Be not dismayed. "Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved." (Psalm 55:22) Stay in your posture of prayer. Maintain a point of view anchored in the word of God. Believe and do not doubt that the help you need is on the way.

I encourage you to meditate on Psalm 121 and find peace and blessed assurance that your help comes from God and it is indeed on the way.

Psalm 121
​1 I look up at the vast size of the mountains--
from where will my help come in times of trouble?
2 The Eternal Creator of heaven and earth and these mountains
will send the help I need.
3 He holds you firmly in place;
He will not let you fall.
He who keeps you will never take His eyes off you and never drift off to sleep.
4 What a relief! The One who watches over Israel
never leaves for rest or sleep.
5 The Eternal keeps you safe,
so close to Him that His shadow is a cooling shade to you.
6 Neither bright light of sun
nor dim light of moon will harm you.
7 The Eternal will keep you safe
from all of life’s evils,
8 From your first breath to the last breath you breathe,
from this day and forever.
​
Be Blessed!
​~Nina

I believe and do not doubt that God is a Provider. He places His provision in the hands of those who will abide in Him to carry forth His seeds to fruition. One of my favorite passages of scripture is the Parable of The Sower (Mark 4:1-20). The reason I love this text so much is that through this parable Jesus shines the light on our hearts as the determinant of the volume and quality for the fruit we bear. The God we serve provides. He withholds no good thing from those who walk according to His will (Psalm 84:11). He commands us to be fruitful (Genesis 1:22). But the blessedness of our lives has a lot to do with the power of our hearts to manifest and multiply the seed that God provides.  
The Parable of the Sower positions our hearts as soil and His word as seed. In the explanation of the Parable of The Sower in Mark 4:20 it is written:
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And those [in the last group] are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word [of God, the good news regarding the way of salvation] and accept it and bear fruit—thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much [as was sown].”

My encouragement for you today is for you to accept the blessing of God's word into your heart. Believe it and do not doubt it (Mark 11:24). Let His word go to work on the inside of you. Let it permeate your being and transform you into the creature that God created (Romans 12:2, 2 Corinthians 5:17). When God puts seed into your life and finds your heart is right with Him, you will be blessed and bountiful beyond measure. You will bear fruit that is fine and far reaching. So let's be encouraged today to believe, and bear it.

Here we are at the start of a new year...a new decade...with lists of goals and vision boards and at the very least some sense of what we want to gain in our lives this year. Many of us have material goals in mind like purchasing a home, or taking trips, or getting a new job to make those purchases possible. Some of us may already be working on plans we've set to reach our goals to achieve more, to be more, or simply to live more fully this year and throughout this decade. I think that's great! Where did your goals and plans come from? Are these natural next steps in your life's progression according to the norms of the culture you subscribe to? Are they responses to the demands or expectations of the people around you? Are they aspirational based on people whose lives you admire or desire to be like?
I simply want to encourage you to stop and prayerfully consider why you want what you want before you solidify your goals and plans for this year...and the decade. In all of our plans for getting more, we must remember to get Godly understanding (Proverbs 4:7, Proverbs 19:8). Having a wise Godly perspective in our goal setting helps us to design a life that God will bless, and that will demonstrate His glory. God is eager to bless us with more when we trust Him for what we want. Let us rely on the word of God in Proverbs 3:5-6 to set our perspectives for goal setting and plan making this year:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.

Yielding to what God wants for our lives should be the highest priority in our goal setting and plan making. Remember to seek first the Kingdom of God, and everything else will be added to your life (Matthew 6:33). When we trust God to increase us, we give Him room to exceed any plan we could ever dream up without Him (Ephesians 3:20). We may think that we know the best way to achieve what we are after, but God assures us that His ways are not our ways, they higher and better than our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9).
I pray that you will seek God with delight and allow him to give you the desires of your heart for the year 2020 and beyond (Psalm 37:4).

Be Blessed!
~Nina

Every now and then I find myself on the verge of being concerned about the really big promises God has planted in my heart by faith. You know the kind of promises that take seasons of waiting, periods of testing, and what seems like a lifetime of preparation to even seem like they might materialize, but that we hold most dear because the seeds of belief were planted in us by God. In those moments of contemplation I go to Hebrews 11 to read the stories of Biblical heroes and how they each believed God and established a legacy by faith that moved humanity forward and has become legendary throughout the ages. Everything we accomplish in present day is a continuation of the works of faith of those who have come before us. The faith we hold dear is for the benefit of those in generations to come (Philippians 1:6)
Let us be reminded that our faith is part of a continuum in the legacy of God's glory in the earth through the power of Christ. Therefore it is important that we recognize that our faith is legendary. The faith that we profess and demonstrate in our lifetime is connected to the legacy of faith that was set in motion when the earth was formed.

"By faith, we see the world called into existence by God’s word, what we see created by what we don’t see."
Hebrews 11:3

I encourage you to join me in the reading of Hebrews 11 today, to be reminded of and strengthened by the legends of faith. Upon their shoulders we stand by faith.
Let us all be strengthened in our faith and reminded of the faith legacies of those who came before us.