God Is Up To Something

Good morning everyone,

I'm here at the office early this morning, getting ready for Sunday and the more I think about the past few weeks the more I realize that God is doing something here at Unity at Calvary. We have seen people saved, financial blessings, and an overall spirit of unity building in the church. I am anxious to see what God is going to do Sunday. Don’t be left out, come and see what God is doing with your own eyes. Let's have revival that leads to revelation!!! See you Sunday!

Happy new years!!! I hope you find God’s richest blessings in 2011!

Sometimes we allow ourselves to get so consumed by relationships, possessions, and even religion that we forget to put God first. The first commandment says to put no other god’s before our God. We often do this ignorantly by putting God on the back burner while we enjoy the people and stuff life has to offer. This year let us resolve to Put God first in everything we do, our hobbies, careers, friends and family. Put God first and expect revival!

But If Not

I was reading today in Daniel 3 where King Nebuchadnezzar was threatening the Three Hebrews and something caught my eye. The king "said if you do not worship my idol I will have you thrown in the fire and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?” And their reply was simple, they said our God is ABLE to deliver us and He will deliver us out of your hand. Wow what faith! They declared that they were going to trust God to take care of them in the heat of the battle. But that's not what caught my attention. The first three words in verse 18 are "But if not". Now wait a minute, they just declared their faith in God to deliver them right? Then why make such a negative statement like "but if not"? You see the truth is that regardless of how much faith we have in God, there are still going to be trials we have to endure. Just because we pray for God to fix our problems doesn't always mean that God IS going to fix them. These three Hebrews said, we believe God is able and is going to deliver us "BUT" even if He doesn't we will not compromise what’s right even if it cost us our lives. Now we all know that God did deliver them but they were prepared to suffer through it if they had to. Now that's faith! Will you be faithful when your "but if not" moment comes? Even if God doesn't heal your marriage, body, or finances, will you still devote your life to Him?

I will be preaching this sermon on January 2nd at 11am. Hope to see you there!

Together We Stand

Over the past few months I have been felling as though great things are just around the corner for the church. And after prayer conference yesterday I feel even more hopeful that the church not just UAC but the church as a whole is about to experience something awesome. Dr. Tim Hill preached an exhilarating word of God with such anointing that people could hardly remain in their sets. However the one thing that stood out to me the most is that our church needs to become unified again and its not a division in black and white or creed and culture it is the division between fathers and sons and mothers and daughters. We desperately need our older generation to embrace our younger generation and vice versa our young need to embrace our older. It’s true that the older will have no future without the young but the young will have no guidance without the old. I need to hear the song of the redeemed; those who have been through hell on earth and have fought the good fight and kept the faith. But the older generation needs to listen to my song of new beginnings to remind them of what God has done for them and will continue to do for them if they will keep their faith of a child. So whether you’re young or old try embracing someone with decades of years difference in age and reap either from their experience or from their passion. Together we will stand!

Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, rejoice. (Philippians 4:4)

Sometimes things can happen to cause us unhappiness and discomfort in everyday life. We often panic when things go wrong or when thing just don’t go our way. Regardless of what is happening in your life you can always be glad in the Lord. If we were to rejoice in circumstances, people, or stuff we would obviously only rejoice when those circumstances go well, people act right, or we get the stuff we rejoice in. But if we rejoice IN the Lord always and the Lord is always with us then we should always rejoice. No matter if our finances head south, our friends behave like enemies or our stuff gets stolen, we can walk tall with our heads held high and a smile on our face knowing that God is in control and He will cause everything to work together for our good. So the next time fear, anxiety, worry, or depression attempts to steal your joy try directing your attention toward the Lord and rejoice in Him and all the other stuff will begin to fade away and the Joy of the Lord will begin to reign in your everyday life. I hope you find Joy in the Lord today for His joy is greater than any other joy in the world. God Bless!!!

Joy Is Coming

I’m beginning to hear more and more of my Christians brothers and sisters talk about battling the demon of depression. I know that it may be hard to believe due to how happy I always appear but I recall a time not too long ago when I began to battle depression myself. I was so down because of some things that others had done that I just couldn’t seem to get over my pain. I had never felt depression before but after about two days of walking around in defeat the Holy Spirit quickened me and exposed the spirit of depression that had crept into my life. I know that two days doesn’t sound like much but it was a horrible two days. I pity anyone who battles this demon. However I believe I was given an opportunity when the Holy Spirit exposed the depression in my life. I was given a choice to trust God and overcome this or doubt God and remain overcome by it. I immediately rebuked the devil and gained the victory. But I was only able to do that because I am filled with the Holy Ghost. Galatians 5:22 says that Joy is a fruit of the spirit. Now think about this. The spirit will always bear fruit, right? Well if you are filled with the spirit you will experience the fruit of the spirit because the spirit is always bearing fruit. The problem is that we think just because we have the Holy Spirit that comes with salvation that we have the baptism. Wrong!!! We must be baptized by the spirit to posses all his gifts and bear all of his fruits. How does someone become baptized by the Holy Spirit? Well one must surrender everything to God first and through obedience, prayer, and sometimes fasting, yes and even by the laying on of hands. So if the fruit of the devil is all over you and in you, try re surrendering your life to the Lord. Then practice what Jesus did. For Jesus kept His eyes on the Joy that was set before Him and then He was able to endure the Cross.(Hebrews 12:1-2) Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, (2) Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Well hello again! It’s been some time since my last blog sorry followers!
Well it’s been interesting this past 20 days. We’ve seen God show up in many ways. I’ve heard reports of the lost being saved, sick being healed, the weak being strengthened and much more. I’m reminded that some things come not but through prayer and fasting. For those of you still holding to your fast I would like to say thank you for it’s because of you that we have been experiencing such great things of the Lord. I pray that God will richly bless you all for your faithfulness.

Ezra 8:21 & 23 Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. (23) So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was intreated of us.