The energy of our lives matters. The way we feel on any given day determines how it's all going to go for us. The mood we have will set the atmosphere around us and we will project onto others everything that is going on inside of us. We may not mean to have it happen, but our hearts spill forth from our mouths in words, in our body language, and in the quality of everything we produce. Our energy is set by the condition of our hearts. Therefore, it is important to adhere to the wisdom of Proverbs 4:23 NIV, "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."

For this reason we must be sure to live in a manner that protects our heart space and keeps us aligned with God, in a posture and with a porosity to receive direction from God at all times. When we are operating in the energy of God, allowing ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit, things will go well in our lives, and for our legacies. We know this from Deuteronomy 12:28 NRSV "Be careful to obey all these words that I command you today, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, because you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God."
But when our energy is off, when we feel disconnected from God and our countenance is not lifted up at the level of connection required to project His light in our lives, things don't go so well (Matthew 5:16). It is important to understand your own heart so that you may effectively curate the atmosphere of your life to honor and protect your heart space. 

My encouragement today is to establish love, respect, and honor as the minimum price of admission for anyone you consider having to take space in your life. Anybody you choose to surround yourself with needs to demonstrably operate in love, respect, and honor toward you, and you toward them. If there is any impediment to this mutuality with anyone in the heart space of our life, I encourage you to pray for God to speak to your heart on how to address the matter. If you feel anxiety or uneasiness about someone in your life, ask God to help you clarify the condition of your heart. Do this, and He will bring you peace that transcends all understanding (Philippians 4:6-8). The people you allow in your life should be ones who show honor to God in their relationship with you. The people around you, whom you allow to speak into your life, should be producing the fruit of God in your life. What does that look like? It looks like the Fruit of the Spirit as defined in Galatians 5:22-23, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control..." 
If this is not the case for you today I'm praying for you to seek God on the matter.

Be Blessed!
~Nina

Let's thank God this morning from within the sealed circumference of his unmerited, unmitigated, unmatched favor!!! With great fervor I praise the Lord with a cry of, "Hallelujah!" For God so loved the world that He gave is one begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). This is the reminder you need today that you will LIVE and not die.
My encouragement is for you to remember whose you are. As a believer in the body of Christ you have been given an inheritance of an abundant life, in spite of what you see happening around you. Despite everything that is happening to you, your life is redeemed from destruction, bought at a price, and set firm on the promises of God (John 10:10 AMP, Psalm 103:4-6). Our life in Christ insulates and nourishes our lives for the greatness of His promises to be alive in our lives.
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​John 15:7
If you remain in Me and My words remain in you [that is, if we are vitally united and My message lives in your heart], ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

You decide today which promise of God's that you will stand on and proclaim His power over your life (Proverbs 18:21). As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15 AMP) standing on the promises of God to Abram in Genesis 12:2-3 AMP and Galatians 3:29:
Genesis 12:2-3 AMP
And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you [abundantly],
And make your name great (exalted, distinguished);
And you shall be a blessing [a source of great good to others];
And I will bless (do good for, benefit) those who bless you,
And I will curse [that is, subject to My wrath and judgment] the one who curses (despises, dishonors, has contempt for) you.
And in you all the families (nations) of the earth will be blessed.

Galatians 3:29
And if you belong to Christ [if you are in Him], then you are Abraham’s descendants, and [spiritual] heirs according to [God’s] promise.

Be Blessed!
~Nina

This is the day that the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it. I am thankful this morning because I know that God knows everything. Nothing is a surprise to God. We may fool all of the people some of the time. We may fool some of the people all of the time. But we fool God none of the time. He knows us by our hearts. 
I often remark internally about the inconsistency between a people's representation of themselves and their true presentation, when I notice it. The infallible word of God that helps me with this is in Matthew 7:15-20:
15 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them."

I notice the tendency of people to create a representation of themselves that they want others to accept and receive as the truth of who they are. But that facade, that narrative, that campaign falls apart when they demonstrate the quality and position of their hearts through words and or actions that completely contradict and deconstruct it all. God knows the hearts of people who harbor unloving qualities in their hearts. Whether we have the opportunity to discern the intentions of people who misrepresent the true character of their hearts is totally up to God (Matthew 9:4). He knows each one of us by heart (1 Samuel 16:7). It is up to us as believers to stay connected to God, so that we may use discernment and see people as God sees them, and govern ourselves accordingly (John 15:1-8). 
The misrepresentation received by our human eyes may fool us, but the wisdom and discernment from God through the Holy Spirit will free us by showing us the true nature of a person's heart (Genesis 41:39). Stay connected to God in prayer and devotion, and he will show you the hearts of those around you (1 Kings 3:8-10). 

Be Blessed!
~Nina

In the culture, the phrase "secure the bag" most commonly refers to getting money or the things we believe are valuable according to our human desires. When we close a business deal we say, "The bag is secured." When our money is low, we say "My bag is light." When we are in a posture of pursuit of revenue or some goal of ours, we say "I'm chasing the bag". When we want to encourage each other to stay focused on the goal, we remind each other that above all else we need to zero in and "get the bag".
With a Kingdom mindset, I am reminded of God's word about truly securing the bag. Instead of spending our lives chasing the bag that we believe is secured by our professional networks, our superior talents, our track records, or our finesse, it's time that we recognize that God is the bag. 
With God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). His word promises that if we delight ourselves in Him, He will give us the desires and petitions of our hearts (Psalm 37:4 AMP). What does it mean to delight ourselves in Him? When I consider the word "delight" used as a verb, to mean "to take great pleasure" or "to give keen enjoyment", I understand that when we take pleasure in seeking God as the thing that we are after, He will give us all that we want.  It makes perfect sense to me. When God knows that what delights Him, also delights us, He can trust us to give us whatever we ask.
His word in Mark 11:24 AMP assures us of this:
"For this reason I am telling you, whatever things you ask for in prayer [in accordance with God’s will], believe [with confident trust] that you have received them, and they will be given to you."

My encouragement today is for everyone of us who is up and at it today chasing the bag. I'm not saying that you won't see success in your worldly endeavors. I'm not saying that what you are after has no worth. I'm simply saying that at some point, we all have to consider our ways and understand that only what we do to build up and fortify the Kingdom of God is truly secure (Haggai 1:6). It's obvious that we can secure the bag on the world's terms, but that bag has holes in it. Let's set our minds and condition our hearts to take delight in a life of Godly pursuits (Matthew 16:23). This way our bags our eternally secured (Matthew 19:16-30).

Be Blessed!
~Nina

I thank God today for the power of His word to establish standards in our lives. What a mighty God we serve who has written a living and infallible prescription for every issue of life. This morning I am embracing an appreciation for the standard set in my soul by the word of God in Psalm 131 that reminds me to operate from a position of quiet strength. 
I thank God for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who counsels me in my times of challenge, and quashes the the desires of my flesh to relish in the strength of my abilities (John 14:26, Philippians 3:3, 1 John 2:16). I rejoice in praise for God who has quieted my soul and relieved me of the self-inflicted obligation to deal with every single matter as it arises (2 Corinthians 4:17). I trust God with a childlike faith. I am willing to let things that I would normally obsess over fixing, to fall all the way apart. I am relieved from the self-assigned duties of fixer and first-responder, and I am at peace with His results. While I may be real good at problem solving at every level, God is the whole solution (Romans 4:6-7, Revelation 1:8, Acts 9:6). 
Truly knowing this and being completely content with  leaving every matter in His hands, is a level of personal strength that nothing in this world can come up against. To truly be able to step back and say and sincerely mean, "Have your way Lord", is truly a blessed way of living (Zechariah 4:6). To wake up every day like a child with parents who give the most excellent care is only a fraction of what it feels like to truly know and live trusting in the constant care of the One who has the whole world in His hands (Matthew 28:18). 
My prayer for everyone reading this is that you will begin to trust God with a truly childlike trust and live in the state of contentment that it bears. 

Be Blessed!
~Nina
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God is not a God of confusion (1 Cor 14:33). The story of Adam and Eve in the garden comes to mind for some reason (Gen 2&3). I thought about how these two blessed people of God living in the midst of His high favor didn't have any issue understanding God or each other until the serpent--a covetous low life with not much to lose--showed up. When you are living out the harvest of a manifested destiny, low lifers most definitely see and covet the lush fruit they watch you enjoying--the prosperity of it all. The serpent has no reverence at all for the grace of God that positioned you so that you didn't have to work so hard to live in the state of prosperity that you simply know as your life (Deut 6:10-12, Josh 24:11-13). The crafty and covetous serpent does not care about the high things of God. In the words of the music artist Future, he's representing for that Low Life. The serpent wants to see you fall down to his level--of thinking, living, and unbelieving.

I just want to remind you today that because of the destiny plan for our lives we have too much at stake to be chit chatting with and heeding advice from the snakes in our gardens (Ephesians 1:11). People who don't live by your level of reverence for God or operate with fortitude for the plan of God in your life can only advise you from their low life perspective. (i.e. "Mannnnn if I had all that height and some arms to pick it I would eat from every tree in the garden, especially that one God said don't eat from. That must be the good fruit he wants to keep for himself (Genesis 3:1-4).)

You know what God has given you and revealed to you (Deuteronomy 8:3). You know what your destiny is set on. Through your experiences of being blessed you know what God requires of you because of how those blessings came about. Anybody talking against that, causing you to make moves that contradict the fundamentals of your destiny so you will do it their way is going to cause you to fall if you allow their influence to guide your direction. Make it a habit of asking yourself, "What did God say? What has he shown me?" Believe in your heart that God meant what He said.

"So will My word be which goes out of My mouth; It will not return to Me void (useless, without result),
Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it."
Isaiah 55:11 AMP

God did not intend to prosper the serpent with His word in the Garden of Eden. His instructions were intended to prosper humanity. So don't let the low life serpent who doesn't revere God's calling on your life plant a word of counter instruction or pervert your understanding of God's instructions for your life. Be wise and discerning so that you may live the high calling of God for your life (Hosea 14:9)

I invite you to hold Philippians 3:14 in your heart today as you press past voices and vices in your life seeking to cause you to stumble and fall to a level beneath God's desire for your life. 

​"I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Phil 3:14

Be Blessed!
​~Nina
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I thank God today for true freedom. In my heart today I simply hold an appreciation for the fact that the Spirit and the truth of God have set me free. Freedom from the bondage of people and the pressures of this life is a beautiful thing to experience while still living. No matter how wonderful the circumstances of our lives seem to be, let's make sure that we know, trust, and depend completely on what truly makes us free. Money doesn't make us free. Slaying our goals doesn't make us free. The dream house doesn't make us free. The dream spouse doesn't make us free. The career of our dreams doesn't make us free. True freedom comes from intimately knowing God for yourself, living our lives in His truth, and relying on the Holy Spirit. 

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty [emancipation from bondage, true freedom]." 2 Corinthians 3:17 AMP

My encouragement today is for anyone who feels stuck, trapped, stagnant, subdued, set up, ill-situated, stolen from, scared, or simply sunken because of the cares of this world. Seek true freedom in the Spirit and the truth of God. Get connected to the body of Christ so that you can be strengthened in a community of believers (John 15:5-8). Your diminished condition is not a result of the presence of the nuisances and restrictions in your life, but from the absence of God's presence (Matthew 19:26). Be encouraged and determined to seek first the Kingdom of God and allow God to give you everything you need (Matthew 6:25-33). Prioritize the daily reading of God's word. Prioritize your worship. Make it your priority to spend time in the presence of God. You don't have to remain where you are. You can indeed be free--not by earthly power, nor by personal might, but by His Spirit (Zachariah 4:6).  

If you are reading this, I am praying for your freedom.

Be Blessed!
~Nina
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Those of us who believe in God can sometimes take for granted that because we know God's power is at work in us, we are going to always come out on the up side of anything we face. We can take God for granted in so many ways. His mercy, His grace, His unmerited favor on our lives--He is worthy to be praised on an incessant basis (1 Thessalonians 5:17, Psalm 34:1). Beyond our praise, God's presence and the perpetuation of His power in our lives should be protected. Our prayers, our praise, our worship, our obedience, our commitment to the ways of God should be nonnegotiable. There comes a time in our lives when we have to be clear about who we are, whose we are, and what we are about. There comes a time when we have to be resolute in our thinking and being about our Father's business (Luke 2:49). The time for playing like we are about the business of God's Kingdom, but compromising to keep the benefits of the world has expired. We have to decide, declare, and demonstrate where we stand. Our cultural infatuations with mousy mantras that are laced in scriptural allusions, but latent in power to produce the spiritual growth, development, and fruit we need to prevail in the Kingdom purpose for our lives, are not going to stand when there is a shaking in the atmosphere of our faith. A faith built on a wave of what's popular about God among people, but not promulgated from a position of sound Biblical truth will not stand (2 Timothy 4:3-5 AMP) when the wind blows.
There comes a time when exactly where you stand will in fact matter. On what ground is your life built? Is your life built on your reliance on what people say, or knowing and declaring the infallible word of God for yourself? (Luke 9:20) Is your life built on the things and the pleasures of this world, or on that which is pleasing to God?

My encouragement for you today is to make sure that your life is built on the Solid Rock. Know God for yourself, and build your life according to His word. The grass withers, and flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever (Isaiah 40:8).

I invite you to meditate on Matthew 7:24-27 today.
“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

Be Blessed!
​~Nina
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