DISCOURAGED TO COURAGEOUS

Welcome to Women of Valour which is about

YOU

experiencing your freedom in Christ, being set free,

experiencing the love of God, and opening your blinded eyes

Isaiah 61:1

Hello Women of Valour,

I am VERY thankful today just because My AWESOME and AMAZING GOD woke me up to see this BEAUTIFUL DAY!!! I AM FREE!!! The spirit of discouragement longer lives here. I HAVE MY COURAGE BACK!!! The Holy Spirit has reminded me that Jesus has set me free. (John 8: 35 - 36) I am no longer a slave in this area I am a child of God. I am remembering my Grandma's words: Get in the Word, stay in the Word; stay there until Jesus comes. I have learned some things about me, God, and the enemy. I have been walking in my instructions which is to "praise my way through" and "stay in the Word". This is what I have been doing. Every chance I get I am listening to music or in the Word and both are uplifting to my spirit. I have found that my soul is uplifted as well. My feelings are changing. My thoughts are changing. The song came to my mind: Praise is What I Do. I have been listening to it and the words are even more meaningful to me now.

Link to Video: https://youtu.be/4iFGtyN6Wuc

BACKGROUND: Over the past week, The Holy Spirit has taught me some very important lessons:

1. Freedom is a process and a journey not a destination.
2. Jesus came to give me life. The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. (John 10:10)
3. Once Jesus sets me free I have a responsibility to stay free.
4. Praise is a choice and not to praise is a choice.

1) Freedom is a process and journey, just like cleaning your house or apartment. I have been set free/cleaned in many areas but there are other areas where I am in the process of being set free/cleaned. There are still areas where I am not walking in freedom or clean at all. I said, "I did not feel like a Woman of Valour." Well, God only sees me the way He created me to be. His blood bought child. He sees me consistently through the Blood of Jesus. However, my thoughts and feelings gave me a very different picture. Our thoughts and feelings can and will lie to us. We have to choose to listen to and seek out the truth or choose to listen to the lies. You clean the house/room and then it is dirty again. There are different parts to us that get dirty and have to be cleaned again. I believe I went though a recleaning in this area of discouragement.   

2) The Holy Spirit reminded me that Jesus came to give me life more abundantly. Jesus has already set me FREE from my prison cell. Jesus has given me LIFE. But the enemy was attacking me based on my past. I was walking in doubt as to what I am supposed to be doing. I was walking in fear of the unknown. I was rehearsing the negative feelings I was feeling. The attack was different this time because usually something is going very wrong in my life and it triggers the thoughts and feelings. Then, my world is thrown into chaos. But this time there was an eerie calmness surrounding me.

3) Through this process, I am learning that I have to walk out and fight to stay FREE. I have a responsibility to stay FREE!!! Jesus gave HIS life to set me free but I have to fight to stay free. How do I fight? By renewing my mind. You have to say what God says about you. You have to ask for help from God. Ask HIM to lead and guide you. The enemy is ever vigilant at his job of trying to help us return to the prison cells Jesus has set us free from. He is doing the exact same thing with ALL of us. You are no different. There is an emotion or thought process that ties you up or gets you to walk down familiar destructive paths. The Holy Spirit showed me I had turned around and was actually walking back toward my prison and prison cell in my mind.

4) Praise is a choice and it gives me a different focus and perspective. My limited perspective only causes me to be further confused. But God's perspective brings about peace, clarity, solutions, and freedom. The Holy Spirit had to remind me what praise does for me. It gets me to refocus on My Father and not my problems or issues. My Father becomes All POWERFUL!  Do not get me wrong I am NOT advocating sticking my head in the sand and ignoring my problems or issues. But praise allows me to see that my Father is greater than my issue. It also allows me to be open to hear from my Father concerning the issue or problem. My Father wants to help me in the midst of the storm. He doesn't want me to handle it alone. Your Father does NOT want You to handle your problems or issues alone either. He wants to lead and guide each one of us to our Freedom in Christ.

There is a strategy to help each one of us overcome. But we need to know the plan and then follow the plan. HE gives us the courage to _______________. This may mean getting up earlier to spend time with the Lord in prayer, HIS Word, Praise. It may mean fasting. It may mean comforting or forgiving someone who has hurt or wronged you. It may mean separation from someone you love for a period of time. It may mean helping a hateful boss. Whatever it means to you it may cost you something that you in your own strength cannot do. This is why we need the Holy Spirit's help. Praise truly helps in each one of these situations. 

TESTIMONY: My doubts and fears were thoughts that the devil were trying to use to make me turn away from MY Father. HE was actually getting me to walk back toward the prison Jesus had set me free from. This is his plan for each one of us. His plan has not changed since the Garden of Eden. He wants to separate us from our Father. It is usually in subtle ways that we just accept. This was not new to me but it was new at the same time. I never had a name to attach to it before: Discouraged. If I had continued walking the path, I would have ended up back in the prison cell worse off than I was before. This is what you and I are fighting against. The Holy Spirit illuminated a Scripture for me.

Matthew 12: 43 - 45: 

When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, 'I will return to the person I came from.' So it returns and finds it former home empty, swept, and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before. This will be the experience of this evil generation. 

So, I am going to take you all through what God is revealing to me in the weeks to come. God is doing some AMAZING things. God has used Our Daily Bread, Rebuilding the Real You, Battlefield of the Mind, Women of Valour blogs, and of course HIS Word to minister to me and remind me who HE is and who I am. There are resources at our fingertips to help us walk through Life victoriously.

We have SMART phones. But how are we using them? Are we using them to help lift us up  or further tear us down? Are we using them to compare ourselves to others? Are we using them as a tool to learn more about who we really are in Christ.

God used my smart phone to have me listen to an audio book: Rebuilding the Real You. He has also used Women of Valour Blogs to minister to me. Here are some particular ones:

• Words: Life or Death
• Loved, Accepted, and Significant (series)
• Who are you

You may have heard and are now hearing many negatives thoughts about yourself. Well, God sent me tell or remind you of HIS truths about you. This is the TRUTH of who you are WOMAN OF VALOUR:

• I am a child of God today. (John 1:12)
• I am an heir. (Galatians 4:6 - 7)
• I am complete today. (Colossians 2: 9-10)
• I am wonderfully and fearfully made today. (Psalm 139: 18)
• I am loved today. (Romans 5:5)
• I am accepted today. (Ephesians 1: 5-6)
• I am significant today. (Jeremiah 29:11)
• I am never alone or lonely today. (Hebrews 13:5)
• I am forgiven today. (Colossians 1: 13-14)

To find more TRUTH statements about who you truly are today as a child of God. Click here

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Like I said, the feelings of being unloved, insignificant, unaccepted, etc. are things that God has walked me through and I recognize those feelings and thought processes. I am Free in those areas. So, I can quickly recognize and not accept them. I KNOW they are not from My Father. This was old but new because I did not know what it was. I just knew it was very familiar to me. When I had its name I could call it what it was and it had to bow to the name of Jesus. I am no longer discouraged. I feel like myself again. I literally had to praise my way through. I also had to speak to those feelings and thought processes what God's Word says about me. I could not allow the feelings to continuously overtake me. Women of Valour, if there is something that is holding you back ask God to reveal it and then fight against it.

The Holy Spirit is using this blog to remind each one of you what Your Father says about you. You are NOT the same person you once were. It was a choice you made to try and follow the old familiar road instead of following the new path God placed you on. It is a choice to follow the new path instead of the old familiar path. It is always a choice that will lead you to life or death. But we must choose LIFE each day!!! There is more to come in the weeks ahead. STAY TUNED!!!

Prayer: Holy Spirit, thank You in advance for giving me a name for the things that are hindering me in my feelings and thought processes. Father, I take __________________ captive to the obedience of Christ.  I release courage into me right now in the Name and by the Blood of Jesus Christ. I want to thank You for loving on me each and every day whether I deserve it or not. 

QUESTIONS:

Have you been feeling a certain way but
 could not explain or express it?

Can  you start and speaking over yourself 
who God says you are?

I pray something you read touched your heart to walk closer to God. 

Please share a comment or Email me

MY GRANDMA: A VIRTUOUS WOMAN

Welcome to Women of Valour which is about

YOU

experiencing your freedom in Christ, being set free,

experiencing the love of God, and opening your blinded eyes

Isaiah 61:1

FANNIE HASKINS WILLIAMS BULLOCK
MY GRANDMA

Background: She was a sharecroppers wife who raised 7 children. 2 boys and 5 girls. She watched one son suffer and die. She also helped rear the grandsons who came down for the summer to help on the tobacco farm. She cleaned homes and reared other peoples' children. She supported her husband and three others who had a vision for a church called "Guiding Star". She was married twice and outlived them both. She got married the second time at 73 and gained 8 stepchildren: 4 stepsons and 4 stepdaughters. She had to go through something with having mature children on both sides and some not in agreement with the union. But she was a strong woman and full of wisdom. She made the blended family into one BIG family which is still VERY close even now. She left an AMAZING legacy which is being carried on by her family. By the way, if you think it is too late for you to get married. God can bring the person when you least expect it. Don't give up; look to my Grandmother's testimony. She had her ups and downs just like all of us. But she had a perspective and outlook on life like no other I have ever known. She was not perfect but she lived for her Lord and family.

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We had my Grandma's Celebration of Life yesterday. She was a woman that loved everyone well. She was a woman who was also well loved. She is greatly missed by everyone who knew her. But we are also rejoicing because we KNOW she is in heaven with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.Her life was a godly example of a Christian not religion. As my husband stated, "If Grandma didn't make it in; ain't no hope for any of us." He said it jokingly but it is sooooooo true. 

Her smile would light up her face, your face, and the room. She had a BEAUTIFUL smile. She was the embodiment of the Proverbs 31 Woman. She was the Matriarch of our family. She was 97 years old. When I met her she was 84 years old. She still lived alone. She was walking around her kitchen with a sweet grace and confidence. She treated me like I was a part of her family not a stranger. This is how she treated EVERYONE she came into contact with over the years.

She loved on me every time I was in in her presence. Even at the end on Easter Sunday, I knelt down in front of her and held her frail hands. I prayed over her for her transition time into Glory. I kissed her hand and told her I loved her and she whispered it back. This is one lady that grabbed a part of my heart the very first time I met her. There was a light that just illuminated from her that was unmistakable. She did not just have a relationship with Jesus. My Grandma had an INTIMATE relationship with HIM. Anyone who knew her knew she loved Jesus.

One of her favorite songs was: "I'm going home on the morning train." She would sit at the kitchen table and sing the chorus over and over again. Then she would tell you: "I'm going home on the morning train because the evening train might be too late." Well, she spoke it into existence because she entered eternity around 6:00 a.m on April 3, 2016.

I watched her walk through the stages of life for the last 13 years. She had dealt with dementia for many years. I watched her transition to her daughter's house when it wasn't safe for her to be left alone. I watched her recover from a fall that resulted in a broken hip. She bounced right back and was up walking around. As her memory deteriorated,she was not able to place how or where she knew you. But her sweet spirit and smile never skipped a beat. I watched her daughters and son serve her as she had served them growing up. They treated her like the queen she was. I must say I have and am learning to serve by watching them over these years.

During her homegoing service I had to take notes. Here they are:

The Solo was "Alabaster Box"
You don't know the cost of the oil in my Grandma's alabaster box. I believe my Grandma's praise was always constant and consistent because of the oil that was in her Alabaster Box. You know the cost of some of the oil in my alabaster box because I am sharing it with you through this ministry. The soloist was feeling this song as she sung it and she made us feel it as well. The Spirit of God was truly present with us.

Link to Video: https://youtu.be/LdrBB0yb-Mo 

There were tributes given which I have to share with all of you. Each person had 2 minutes to speak. Each person used more than 2 minutes. Each one had a story about how Grandma had impacted their lives. Here are some of the words about her:

• She was a Gift from God.
• I learned how to serve God and people from her.
• She modeled Christ.
• She taught me how to see them as Christ and serve them.
• She taught me how to wash people's feet. When they go up; you go down.
• When they are nasty; you be sweet.
• She was a humble and sweet lady.
• She ALWAYS had a smile.
• She ALWAYS had a praise whether at home or church.
• She had plenty of faith.
• She was a sweet and precious lady.
• She was the same every time you met her.
• She fought a good fight.
• She was the easiest parishioner.
• She was a gentle giant.
• Her life preached a sermon.
• She had a boldness in her faith.
• There were 4 strong men (deacons)who founded this church. There were 4 strong women who had their backs. They told them to do what God has called you to do.
• Grandma and Grandpa had keys made to their house for the pastor and had a room for him as well. 
• The 4 deacons taught their 2nd pastor how to lead.
• When she could hardly make it to her seat at church she still had a smile on her face.
• She loved EVERYBODY.
• Her life exemplified the Christian walk.
• All of her offspring know the Lord.
• She was a Guiding Light.
• Her life was one of love, service, and sacrifice.
• She was a soldier.

She had 2 sayings that everybody remembers:

1. I got a feeling everything is gonna be alright.
2. Get in the Word and stay in the Word; stay there til Jesus come.

Their spoken words actually displayed her life. They were ALL GREAT!!! Then the eulogy which was the icing on the cake. The title was: The Good Fight II Timothy 4: 6 - 8 Her Pastor and Daughter-in-law gave a short but moving message. She said many of the same things that were spoken through the tributes. However, she closed with a POWERFUL statement, asked us a question, and said two words.

Statement:

There is coming a day;

when a day will start without you.

Question:

Did you accept Jesus Christ as Your Savior?

Two Words:

SHE WON!!!

My Grandma did indeed fight a good fight, She received her crown. She is rejoicing in heaven. She did indeed WIN. It is my desire to win as well. But it is God's desire for each of us to win. We can only truly win by accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior. Just as Grandma made the choice each one of us have to make the same choice. "Have you made the choice to accept Jesus as Your Savior?" If the answer is no. You can today by praying the following simple prayer.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, I need a Savior, Jesus Christ. I openly confess that I am a sinner and need a Savior. I am asking You to forgive me of all my sins and come into my heart. As I am confessing with my mouth and believing in my heart that Jesus Christ is the Lord who came to this earth, died, and was resurrected on the third day. I choose today to receive you into my heart according to Romans 10: 9 - 10. I choose to trust you with my life. 

NOTE: If you prayed the prayer to accept or rededicate your life to the Lord Jesus please share it with someone. Be EXCITED like my Grandma was. Do not keep it a secret. God loves you and I do too!

QUESTIONS:

Have you considered that there will be a day 
without you?

Do you know where you will spend eternity 
when the your day comes?

I pray something you read touched your heart to walk closer to God. 

Please share a comment or Email me

MIRACLES...

Welcome to Women of Valour which is about

YOU

experiencing your freedom in Christ, being set free,

experiencing the love of God, and opening your blinded eyes

Isaiah 61:1

Hello Women of Valour,

Have you guys watched the trailer for Miracles from Heaven? When I saw the trailer I knew I wanted to see the movie. I saw Christy Beam (Real Mom) and Jennifer Garner (Actor) on the show Life Today. They talked about the making of the movie and how she relived certain parts again as she watched the movie. There was one thing she said that blessed me and made me refocus my attention. I may not get her words exactly right so I will paraphrase:

She was so focused on the BIG MIRACLE of her daughter being healed that she missed all of the little miracles God was doing throughout the journey. 

Women of Valour, are you so focused on the BIG MIRACLE that you are missing the little ones along your journey? I had to immediately stop and repent for not seeing the little miracles. What do you need to refocus your attention on today?

I took my niece to see "Miracles from Heaven" this past weekend. I told my niece about what Christy Beam said on the way to the theater. All through the movie I kept saying: "little miracle". She would just look at me and smile. If you have not seen it please see it. I give it 5 ***** (supposed to represent stars)  It is AMAZING what we can see after the storm. The famous saying: "hindsight is 20/20" comes to my mind. But God wants us to see the miracles HE is accomplishing in the midst of the storms in our lives on a daily basis. HE even wants us to recognize the little setbacks as setups for miracles. (Check out my "Interrupted" post) Even people in our lives both friends and strangers can be used by God to accomplish miracles in our lives and ours.

Each of us experience our BIGGEST MIRACLE every day. It is called LIFE! When God chooses to wake you up to see another day it is A MIRACLE. It is our job to recognize the little miracles while we are waiting on the other BIG MIRACLE to happen. The individual miracles make up the BIG miracle.

Let me share a few of mine (BIG and little miracles):

• I was given an AMAZING man of God to love me. Even though, I did not believe I deserved his love in the beginning. God showed me that HE was loving on me through this man. HE was going to use our marriage to restore what the enemy had thought he had stolen from me. 
• As an adult, I was given another family to love on me when I believed my family did not love me. People were placed in my life to build me up and not tear down. God was showing me that HE loved me through these kind AMAZING souls. God was separating lies from the truth in my belief system.
• As an adult, I was given my natural family back to reform and reshape relationships. God used my family to actually help rescue me when I should have been homeless. God was still protecting me and opening my eyes to see the truth instead of ALL the lies I had believed growing up. God showed me that ALL families have dysfunction within them. Mine was no different. I had to choose to love myself and love on them through the process.
• I was stuck in traffic and then drove past a horrific car accident. I was delayed and stuck in traffic because God was protecting me. 
• I have been running late for work and gotten behind the slowest person and rode past a cop waiting to give a ticket. God was protecting me.
• My boss has been acting ugly and I don't know what is going on. God drops it in my spirit to talk to my boss. I don't want to talk but I do. I find out there is some scary personal things going on inside my boss. God had placed me there to listen and intercede. I had to understand I was used to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the flesh to my boss. This resulted in favor which could only come from God.
• My girlfriend needed to talk through some things she was going through. But I was busy. BUT GOD dropped in my spirit to call or hang out with her. She was dealing with some major things. God used me to listen and intercede. He also used the situation to show me where HE had brought me from. I had passed my test and could share my testimony with her. God used me to show her she was NOT alone. It has happened to someone else and I survived and can now talk openly about the shame. You don't have to hide or try to cover whatever it is up.
• I have left a job and went to another job. I prayed about my next step and was redirected back to my original job. God has used me to touch young lives in the children and in my co-workers. I am happy and content understanding that God is exactly who HE says HE is. HE was still protecting and providing for me.       

Hopefully, you can identify with one or more of these miracles in your own lives. Prayerfully, it prompts you to remember the little miracles God has accomplished in your life. Please share what "little miracles" or BIG MIRACLES God has accomplished in your lives. REMEMBER: I love you BUT Jesus loves you even more.

Prayer: Father God, thank you for the little miracles You have and are accomplishing in my life. Father, open my eyes to see the miracles in and around my life. Thank You in advance for Your Love for me.
  

 QUESTIONS:

What do you need to refocus your 
attention on today?

What are your 'little miracles'?

I pray something you read or heard touched your heart to walk closer to God. 

Please share a comment or Email me